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THE 


ANTI-BILED SHIRT 

1 



NEW YORK: 

THE AUTHORS* PUBLISHING COMPANY. 
1878. 

r 


yZ - 6 




Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1877, by 
THE AUTHORS’ PUBLISHING COMPANY, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 


CHAPTER I. 

The A. B. S. C. met, one night in June, 1876, 
for the consideration and transaction of important 
business. The verandah on which the back par- 
lor windows of the residence of the future Captain, 
President and Treasurer of the A. B. S. C. opened, 
offering a favorable position, it was at once taken 
possession of, and then, in darkness, relieved only 
by the dim light at the end of an occasional cigar- 
ette, the deliberations commenced. Scattered in 
various attitudes over the verandah were Will, Jim, 
Bob, John and Jack, enveloped in the cheerful 
gloom occasioned by the sheltering vines. These 
constituted the A. B. S. C. 

A voice from the darkness, accepted on trust as 
that of John, suggested, as a captain and a treas- 
urer were desirable luxuries on an expedition such 
as that they were about to arrange, that Will be 
3 


4 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 


elected to the first position, and, to save a division 
of responsibility, and, therefore, diminished and less 
satisfactory vengeance in the event of malfeasance 
in office or other objectionable conduct, he he also 
constituted treasurer. To his captaincy no one 
objected; hut some slight personal objections to the 
bestowal of the treasurership upon any other than 
each and every objector were expressed; which, 
however, were quickly suppressed. John’s sugges- 
tion was adopted. Will was, thereafter, to be 
reverenced and — watched as captain and treasurer. 

This business transacted, the club proceeded to 
applaud its own courage and independence, in 
taking the step it had; and the opinion was freely 
expressed that the name, A. B. S. C., was destined 
to go down in history as the representative of per- 
sonified originality and freedom from convention- 
ality. Anti-Biled Shirt Club, as a name, meant 
something. It was more than a mere name — it 
proclaimed a principle. It meant that they, the 
members of the A. B. S. C., although bound on a 
camping expedition, indeed, to the wilds of Maine, 
but not altogether away from the sight of those 
accustomed in the walks of civilized society to see 
them attired as custom demands, intended to dis- 


1HE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 


5 


pense wholly with that article of civilized apparel 
graphically described in the name of the club. 
More than this : it meant that, although expect- 
ing to meet in the camp several lady friends from 
the city of churches, they intended not only to 
dispense with that all hut necessity, but to dress 
to match. And J ohn had but given expression to 
the sentiment of the club as to their proposed con- 
dition, when he declared that for him to take with 
him a a biled shirt ” would be to necessitate a 
revolution in his wardrobe, as he could not wear 
it without subjecting himself to the charge of a 
dishonest acquisition of such an inappropriate 
article. 

Such being the high resolve of the club, surely 
the pride with which each member sounded the 
initials so full of meaning to him, was pardonable; 
and the self-praise in which the club indulged for 
a short time deserved but little condemnation. 

This pride of name soon had a fall. J ohn, the 
one-time favorite apostle of the club's fundamen- 
tal principle, and the author of its name, had in 
an evil hour listened to the seductive voice of the 
publisher of a New York paper, and had accepted 
from him a species of circular, profanely known as 


6 


THE ANT1-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 


a “ soup-ticket,’* which circular set forth the fact 
that the bearer, Mr. John , was the special cor- 
respondent of the “N. Y. Evening and by 

some unexplained but effectual process was to 
smooth the path of its possessor wheresoever he 
should go. Now a special correspondent of a me- 
tropolitan daily may fairly be expected to appear, 
at least occasionally, habited in the proscribed gar- 
ment. At least so thought J ohn, and according- 
ly proposed that “biled shirts” be not strictly for- 
bidden, but be allowed in moderation. This was 
something the club was not prepared at once to 
concede. It would change considerably the char- 
acter of the club. But after some discussion 
John gained his point, and A. B. S. C., as the ex- 
ponent of a principle, ceased to exist. Should 
they then relinquish it as a name P Not at all, 
said the club. What, after all, is a name ? A mere 
convenience. They had sacrificed their great 
principle, but that was nothing. What do plat- 
forms amount to ? Men are what we want, and 
these the club possessed. For convenience they 
wanted a name, and as their name was still dear 
to them, and, withal, presented an imposing array 
of initials, A. B. S. C. the club remained. 


THE ANT1-BILED SHIRT CL UB. ' 7 

Tinware then had the floor. Plates, cups and 
pails, and, most important of all, a coffee-pot, that 
should be of gentle disposition and likely to hear 
patiently the rude manipulations of inexperienced 
hands, without attempting self-destruction to es- 
cape its ills and revenge itself upon its tormentors, 
were to be secured. As Boh possessed influence 
in the proper quarter, to him the trust was confided, 
with many suggestions. He desired instructions : 
he received them, as gentlemen in his position are 
very likely to. Two-pint cups, he thought, were 
desirable : no one else did, and he became more 
moderate. 

How much meal, in the various forms of mush, 
would the club consume, was a question that de- 
veloped considerable difference of opinion. Jim 
thought none at all. The glowing account of 
“ Doctor John’s” last experience, when, in com- 
pany with a goodly hand of equally heroic indi- 
viduals, he had camped for two months in the 
midst of the beauties of nature, subsisting all that 
time upon the health-giving mush, at but a small 
fraction of nothing per diem per man, awoke no 
answering echo in his breast. To him such living 
would he “ roughing it ” in a decided but unpala- 


8 


THE ANTI-BILEB SHIRT CLUB . 


table manner. ’T would be altogether too realistic. 
But the soul of the captain yearned for his mush ; 
the joys of the past decided “ the Doctor's ” voice ; 
and the members on the fence going with the 
majority, mush carried the day. But a compro- 
mise was agreed to, and more substantial food was 
provided for. 

Milk was to be procured daily from a house 
half a mile or so from the prospective camping 
ground. Bob grew economical, and expressed an 
opinion that three pints a day would be sufficient. 
Jack witheringly remarked, “And you want a 
two-pint cup ; ” which remark, with others offered 
by the mush-loving members, effectually silenced 
the economist. 

It was decided that two of the club, “ the Doc- 
tor ” and Jack, should start on Friday, the 7th of 
J uly, taking with them the tent, provisions, etc., 
and as much private baggage as the other mem- 
bers could impose upon them ; and that Will and 
Jim, who, because of circumstances which had con- 
siderable control over them, were more limited as 
to time, should follow on Saturday night by way 
of Boston, arriving, they mentally congratulated 
themselves, after all the work of preparing the 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB . 


9 


camp was done. Bob was to follow the next week 
- — if he could : circumstances had him too. 

Everything was bright with anticipated joys. 
Bright visions of “ a lodge in a vast wilderness, ” 
with all the various excitements and novel pleas- 
ures which do “ accompany or flow therefrom,” 
possessed each member of the club as the A. B. S. 
C. adjourned, to come together again away from all 
the cares and requirements of civilized life, “ free 
as the air they breathed/' and in various other 
beatified conditions which will readily suggest 
themselves to any one who has been in their place. 


10 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB . 


CHAPTER II. 

John and Jack duly started Friday afternoon. 
They intended to go direct to the selected “ wil- 
derness, a few miles this side of Portland. They 
bought their tickets, and checked their rather 
peculiar collection of baggage. In the hurry and 
confusion of receiving and attending to the bag- 
gage of two boat loads of passengers, the incipient 
baggage-smasher who assisted the full grown 
specimens of the genus in their multiplied labors, 
made a mistake. He looked at the tickets, and 
they said Portland ; for with a sharp eye to econ- 
omy through tickets had been bought. But the 
tickets did not say by way of Boston, which the 
innocent little pieces of brass, had they been 
closely examined, would have said. They were 
not so examined, and so, in process of time,- John 
and Jack went one way and tbe provisions, tent 
and bedding went the other. 

All unconscious of their houseless and destitute 
condition, John and Jack continued on their way. 


v THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB . 


11 


The boat was crowded with a diversified assort- 
ment of humanity. Jack with laudable impar- 
tiality claimed acquaintance with a prominent 
clergyman of Brooklyn, on account of residence in 
that city ; and then at once proceeded to be enter- 
tained by the remarks of a gentleman from 
Mexico, whose tales were sufficiently adventurous 
to interest the most enthusiastic admirer of the 
freedom of savage life, and whose consumption of 
tobacco would appal any but the most generous 
of companions. 

“ The Doctor ” also discovered a congenial soul. 
This was a rather stout young man, whose recent 
experience in the treatment of his afflicted eyes 
aroused the interest of the present u special corre- 
spondent ” and future M. D. The young man 
was bound on a vacation, and had a watch he de- 
sired to swap. Perhaps it would be more correct 
to say he had a watch to swap, and was bound on 
a vacation ; for swapping appeared to be the chief 
end of his existence, and a vacation sank into in- 
significance by its side. The Doctor not possess- 
ing a watch in a similar condition, the missing 
link was not supplied, and the evolution of 
watches failed to be established. 


12 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 


“ You see, I carry two watches — I always do ; 
this one’s my swapper. I've swapped watches for 
ten years. Sometimes I gain and sometimes I 
lose ; hut I always make it a point to swap every 
time I can. I've swapped this watch, sir, more 
than a dozen times, but it always comes back 
again somehow. It knows me. Sometimes it's 
gone for a long time, and I think I've lost it, 
when up comes a man and says he wants to swap. 
Of course, I take him up, and then out he pulls 
this watch, and I get it back again. Come, you'd 
better swap." 

But the doctor thought differently. 

There was much that was attractive about this 
young man ; among other things, the capacity he 
displayed for taking care of himself. He had no 
stateroom when he started, but was not in that 
condition when the boat reached its destination. 
One was vacated at the first landing ; into it he 
quietly slipped, and sweet were his dreams till the 
morning. 

Fate parted these two, and soon each went his 
separate way. Arrived at the extensive station, 
J ohn and J ack proceeded to hunt up their bag- 
gage. Consternation seized them when they made 


THE ANTI-BILEB SHIRT CLUB. 


13 


the discovery that it was not. What had become 
of it ? And worse, what would become of them 
when the rest of the club arrived P The prospect 
of the speedy reunion of the now scattered A. B. 
S. C. was anything but joyous to them. They 
wished the club were composed of fewer members, 
now, as never before, thoroughly believing that 
u twcf are company, more a crowd,” and felt a 
strong desire to camp alone, away from the danger 
of experiencing “ man’s inhumanity to man.” 

The obliging combination of station-master, 
baggageman, telegraph-operator, etc., telegraphed 
to Portland, and discovered that the wayward 
baggage had come through by the Eastern 
road ; whereupon he directed it to be forwarded 
to him, and promised the desponding youths that 
he would send it to them by the stage that daily 
made the trip from the station to Moderation and 
the great beyond. This raised their spirits, and 
making the best of it, they drove off in a state of 
subdued delight, alighting at length before the 
hospitable door of the present residence of three 
of their city friends, and the prospective abode of 
as many more, whose arrival was soon expected. 
They were joyfully welcomed, and, of course, 


14 


THE AHTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB . 


overwhelmed with questions as to the how, why 
and wherefore of their appearance houseless and 
destitute, and various other questions about their 
journey, friends they left behind them, etc., etc., 
which only a woman knows how to propound, and 
which, when three of the sex get to work at once, 
descend with telling force upon the victim ; an 
experience which one must undergo to appreciate, 
but which, once undergone, leaves no aching 
void to be filled, no curiosity unsatisfied, and the 
victim contented and desiring no more. 

One thing there is that makes this endurable — 
it does not last long. I know that generally in 
such an engagement the fittest survives, the 
weaker giving out ; and that sometimes this sur- 
vivor evinces a delight in asserting her fitness. 
Nevertheless, as a rule, the tempest, though vio- 
lent, is brief. Herein lies the hope of man. John 
and J ack, firm in this belief, possessed their souls 
in patience, and outrode the storm. 

Saturday and Sunday passed. Monday after- 
noon arrived. Still no tent, no trunk of provi- 
sions. 

Meanwhile, in blissful expectation, having faith 
that they were going up to possess the land al- 


THE ANTI-B1LEB SHIRT CLUB. 


15 


ready prepared for them, Will and Jim journeyed. 
Jim had bought a second-hand shot gun, upon 
very short acquaintance and innocent of all knowl- 
edge of its previous character, upon the recom- 
mendation _ of the brother of its owner. It 
was delivered at the Btore, and was at once ar- 
rayed in a suit of bagging, which fitted the barrel 
so tightly as to preclude removal therefrom, 
except in sections. Variously laden with sundry 
articles procured at the last moment, they 
marched down Murray street to the Fall River 
boat. 

Two remarkable bundles were composed, one 
gun forming the spinal column of the one, and one 
umbrella officiating in the same character for the 
other, and these were deposited in the care of the 
gentleman who attends to such matters for and in 
consideration of a certain compensation per bundle. 

Many were the plans for the fortnight's enjoy- 
ment discussed, as evening slowly fell upon them 
surrounded by all the beauties of Long Island 
Sound. The sinking of the orb of day to his 
nightly rest beneath the wave was duly witnessed 
from the highest position attainable, the top of 
the paddle-box, and then the pair descended into 


16 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB . 


the depths devoted to the exercise of the gastro- 
nomic art, to attend to business. This over, time 
quickly passed until the hour drew near when 
mankind, in general if not in particular, seeks re- 
pose. 

The staterooms were full to overflowing. 
Improvised beds were in every corner of the saloon, 
while couchless humanity in various postures re- 
posed on chair and sofa. Faint sounds slightly 
disturbed the midnight stillness, prompting to 
ponderous meditation the wakeful auditor. Are 
snores generic, or specific ? Does every one pos- 
sess hut a copy of the great original snore, or do 
you and I and every one possess a snore that 
stands alone, complete, original, individual, im- 
possible of successful imitation, and always dis- 
tinguishable by those who know and love it, 
tliough it be but one in a mighty chorus P 

Newport. A procession files out from the hold 
below, crosses the plank, and stacks its load of 
hand trucks upon the dock. The men, to the 
number of some thirty or forty, seize each a truck, 
and, single file, run down the plank and into the 
hold. Truck after truck returns, bearing its load. 
Beer, beer, beer, and then a Saratoga trunk. 


TEE ANTLBILED 8E1RT CLUB. 


17 


More beer, interspersed with crates of fruit and 
various boxes, follows. Then a piano in its box 
is carefully wheeled out, followed by two or three 
carriages run out and along the dock. A man 
comes out bearing a huge kite in his hand ; 
another follows with one still bigger ; then once 
more commences the march of lager. Trunks of 
all kinds and in all conditions, from the dilapi- 
dated little chest to the stylish mountain of fash- 
ion, take their places indiscriminately in the 
democratic procession. Yulgar lager follows and 
precedes the Saratoga as impartially as it does 
the meanest box. 

For an hour or more the stream of trucks, one 
side empty and the other laden, continues. Seen 
in the daylight, with all the bustle of day around 
it, perhaps it would not be particularly noticeable ; 
but now, at midnight, with all else quiet around 
it, lit up by the light from steamer and docklamp, 
viewed by one of the few passengers awake and 
out on the upper deck, it is a scene to be re- 
membered, commonplace though it be. 

The train at Fall Kiver was quickly filled. Will 
and Jim entered a car where seats were almost 
all taken possession of. Will sees a seat occu- 


18 


2 HE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 


pied by the valise and coat of the occupant of its 
fellow. 

“ Is tnis seat engaged ? ” 

“ Yes, sir.” 

Suspicious Will continues : “ Engaged for your- 
self?” 

“No sir!” with slight emphasis. 

The march from Old Colony depot to a hotel 
was unimportant but picturesque. Jim bearing 
the unfashionably attired gun with the various 
bundles attached thereto, was not such a sight 
as might be expected to be met on a Sabbath 
morning in the city of culture. Nor was Will 
in outward form much his superior. 

The ticket agent of the Eastern Road, Monday 
morning, developed an ignorance surprising in a 
member of that usually smart class of men. 

“ Do you connect at Rochester with the Roches- 
ter road ? ” 

He didn’t know. 

“Do you know anyone here that does know ? ” 

“ The train-master may — there he is ; ask 
him.” 

This official believed they did. The conductor 
knew more. They connected sometimes— -when 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 


19 


his train was on time. He promised to be on 
time this morning, to accommodate his two pas- 
sengers, who discovered afterwards that they 
need have given themselves no anxiety, as the 
Rochester men were even more courteous, and 
would wait an hour or so for a passenger who 
telegraphed his intention and desire to connect. 

Their station arrived at, the factotum ap- 
peared before Will and Jim, and, without pre- 
liminary introduction, informed them of the mis- 
hap experienced by the “ other fellers/' He knew 
they were coming and at once recognized them, 
and easily picked them out from among the throng 
of three with whom they alighted. He promised 
to send their bundles up by the stage, along 
with, he hoped, the truant baggage. Will and 
Jim longed to commune with their friends; so, 
taking only the gun and umbrella, they set 
out on a tramp variously estimated by the natives 
of the surrounding country at from five to eight 
miles. 

No one knows how fast he ordinarily walks un- 
til he has strayed from the right road and been 
obliged to retrace his steps. It requires but a 
single experience of this happy condition to in- 


20 


* THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 


crease a man’s respect for his pedestrian powers. 
So thought Will and Jim that hot day as they 
descended a long hill upon which they had ex- 
ercised their powers in vain. The farmer in- 
terrogated by them as he was engaged by the side 
of the road repairing the implements to be used 
in the neighboring fields, told them the road 
they had at first taken but afterwards abandoned 
as apparently leading nowhere was the right one. 
Back they went. 

“ Is this the road to Moderation ? ” they in- 
quired, to make doubly sure, of an ancient Yankee, 
calmly and sedately at work near his barn. He 
answered it was, and, offering to show them a 
short cut, by which over a mile could be saved, 
led them to the rear of his house. 

“ Them that knows alius goes this way, and I 
gen’rally show it to strangers. Keep right across 
my pastur’, down to them bars. Then go through 
that field where they’re mowin’ — keep along the 
edge — and you’ll come to the end of a new road. 
That takes you out to the stage road, and saves 
goin’ away round there.” 

Thankful for his direction, they followed it, and, 
after a warm tramp reached the stage road. Coats 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CL'UB. 


21 


off and slung across Jim’s weapon, hanging down 
therefrom in a manner suggesting the Sunday- 
scnool picture of the two Hebrews bearing the 
bunch of grapes, the march continued. A rustic 
met them. Queried he, “ Why don’t you shoot 
that owl in there ? ” 

Sure enough, why didn’t they ? The owl was 
undiscoverable, but the question was suggestive. 
An opportunity of entering triumphantly into 
camp (or where the camp ought to be), bearing 
on this their first appearance abundant spoils, 
might present itself. The gun was carefully 
stripped and cleared for action. Then Will, fall- 
ing modestly to the rear, assumed the more hum- 
ble load of coats, gracefully yielding the leadership 
to the bearer of the weapon. 

Opportunity arrived ; game presented itself, and 
took up position within convenient distance. The 
deadly firearm was brought to bear ; the cap ex- 
ploded ; and the robin, unharmed, flew away, but 
unwilling to so cruelly disappoint the sportsman, 
obligingly took up a second position still within 
range, and awaited better success of a second cap. 
That, too, failed. Caps responded quickly enough 
to the salute of the hammer, but the gun declined 


22 


THE ANTI-BILEB SHIRT CL UB . 


to discharge. Game grew impatient and dis- 
appeared. It had done its full duty — of robin no 
more could be demanded. 

Something was wrong with the gun. The loud 
salute with which it was to greet the boys, became 
more than doubtful. Had it then been carried all 
these miles in a hot sun, only to fail at the last and 
crowning moment ? It grew heavy — Jim had 
not thought it could become so very weighty. 
Will’s modesty fled. He soon took the lead, and 
led Jim a quick tramp. 

A man at work in a field calls out, “ They’re 
looking for you up there.” Here was fame ! 
Away up in this out-of-the-way place, they were 
recognized as members of the A. B. S. C. A war- 
whoop from Will called forth an answering yell 
from the island. The gun was silent ; its expected 
thunder of welcome was not heard. It silent, 
only yells replied to the quick discharges of a tar- 
get rifle in the hands of J ack. 

The bank was quickly descended, as the two J.’s 
emerged from the bushes on the other side. The 
little rivulet, whose breaking from its parent stream 
called the island, as such, into existence some few 
years before, was quickly crossed by jumping from 


THE A NT1-B1LED SHIRT CL UB. 23 

rock to rock in its bed. Over the events of the 
next few moments we draw the veil of oblivion. 

Will and Jim paid their respects to the ladies 
at u the house,” and to a very welcome repast ; 
then joined the other boys. 

The stage brought the tent, but no trunk. 
Camping under these circumstances was possible, 
but unattractive. Blankets were obtained from 
the house and preparations for the night com- 
menced. Will, John and Jack were soon indus- 
triously at work pitching the tent ; — Jim proceed- 
ed to clean his beloved, but erring gun. 

Soon the tent uprose in all its beauty, upheld 
by poles produced that day by a neighboring saw- 
mill. To start up a saw mill that has long been 
idle, simply to cut three pine poles, seemed ex- 
travagant to Will ; but when informed that the 
price demanded therefor was but thirty cents, his 
feeling of disapproval changed to one of admira- 
tion of the generous native who owned the mill. 


24 


THE ANTI-BILEH SHIRT CLUB. 


CHAPTER III. 

Will and the Doctor retired early to the com- 
mon couch of scanty hemlock, which the brief fit 
of industry that seized the Doctor and Jack that 
morning had provided. The night was very 
warm. At back and front the tent was kept open 
to admit the welcome breeze which occasionally 
swept through. Had the breeze alone swept 
through, or had the not so welcome visitants 
merely passed through and on, the first night of 
camp might have been one of bliss. But this was 
not the case. From near and far, borne on eve- 
ry cooling breeze, swift hurrying to their unex- 
pected banquet, came the unwelcome devouring 
guests. These seized the would-be dreamers and 
claimed them for their own. 

The charm, the novelty of their position fled. 
Night, in a tent in the midst of a small clearing, 
shut in on every side and screened from observa- 
tion by the trees ; the slumber-inviting sound of 
running water near ; the faint rustling in the 


THE ANTI-B1LED SHIRT CLUB. 


25 


pine tops, shaking loose their fragrance and giving 
it to the gentle breeze; — all combined to produce 
a state of bliss which Will and John were most 
willing to enjoy, but which they were doomed to 
forego. From the sublime — by no means to the 
ridiculous — they fell. Slapping right and left 
with murderous intent, with fiendish delight im- 
bruing their hands deep in the gore of slaughtered 
mosquitoes, suggested home and neighboring Jer- 
sey ; but any such reminder was strangely unde- 
sired. 

When Jack and Jim wended their way tent- 
wards, innocently bearing a needed lantern, they 
were greeted as they approached with a savage 
yell, “ Put out that light !” entirely foreign to 
the nature of either of the recumbent youths 
within. In surprise the mandate was obeyed, and, 
lying down, they too joined in the holy but hope- 
less war of extermination. They were admitted 
to the doleful debate which followed, the Captain 
for their enlightenment reciting the minutes of 
the previous part of the meeting. Will and John 
had all but surrendered to the foe, and seriously 
contemplated a retreat. The important question 
for decision was, could this thing be endured ? 


26 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB . 


They liked the prospect before them ; had no 
fears of lack of enjoyment ; but could flesh endure 
this slow consumption from night to night ? 
The non-appearance, and even possible loss of 
their trunk with all their household gods no 
longer troubled them. Jim forgot his gun's af- 
fliction ; forgot his unsuccessful attempt to purge 
it of its impurity ; forgot, for the moment, that 
deep down its barrel the wormer borrowed from 
the Doctor still stuck fast, refusing to be extracted. 
Any remnant of wrath at the trunk and tent mis- 
hap now finally disappeared. All was sunk in the 
common affliction. 

At length cheerful counsels prevailed. Another 
trial they would make. Jack and Jim were to go 
to Portland the next morning to hunt up the 
trunk They would procure a supply of penny- 
royal, and thus the enemy might be overcome. 
Tired nature asserted itself, and the club slept. 

A rush of ponderous bodies past the tent, 
startled into wakefulness the Doctor, whose posi- 
tion was at the open rear of the tent, the sides of 
which hung loose, unfastened at the bottom. 
The back being drawn up, the sides near the back 
were also elevated. The Doctor, therefore, some- 


THE ANT1-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 27 

times slept quite as much outside as inside the 
tent. He quickly thrust out his head and should- 
ers. and hurled a stick after the frightened horses, 
cneering the missile on its mission with a yell all 
his own. Always thereafter his final duty before 
retiring was to collect a small pile of sticks and 
place the same within convenient reach. 

At daylight the club awoke. John was to get 
the first breakfast. This was quickly done, as 
there was next to nothing to get. Then Jack and 
Jim started off to meet two of their lady friends, 
with whose company they were to be blessed. The 
stage bore them to the station, and soon Portland 
was entered, and, joyous sight ! the trunk was 
found. Its ancient form stood upon one end and 
welcomed them. It almost burst with joy. A 
few nails were lovingly bestowed upon it, and it 
was left to the care of the baggage-man, duly 
checked for its proper destination. 

On opposite corners of a street in Portland, two 
signs, similar in appearance, and standing out 
from the buildings in the same manner, bear re- 
spectively the words “Guns” and “Coffins.” Into 
the store whose sign bore the first of these legends, 
Jim entered. He wanted a wormer attached to his 


28 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB . 


ramrod. The rod was too long, and abbreviation 
was recommended. A gun, to the outward eye 
the same in every particular as the loved one left 
behind, was selected, and instructions to measure 
the rod thereby were given. 

A few hours were passed in various ways, a con- 
siderable portion of which was spent in waiting 
for viands that never put in an appearance, and 
in the consumption of unsatisfactory substitutes, 
provided by a damsel with pleasing deliberation, 
in what was called a restaurant. Then, the per- 
fected ramrod secured, they commenced the return, 
not forgetting the penny-royal. 

There was a full load for the stage that trip at 
least. Grade and Mary — the latter known always 
by the pet name “ Dollie,” bestowed upon her in 
her youth as appropriate, but now, as is usually 
the case with individuals whose names ought to 
be descriptive, long since outgrown — with Jack 
and Jim were among the select few whose for- 
tune it was to secure seats outside with the 
driver. 

“ Boom for one more up there ?” queried a 
youth, whose attire and jauntily swinging cane 
were evidently meant to proclaim the fact that, 


THE ANT1-BILED SHIRT CLUB 


29 


though he now honored the country with his 
presence, he did not belong thereto. 

“ Then I suppose I’ll have to go in the hold. 
But I’ll secure a deck passage when I return,” 
he remarked as he subsided within and beneath. 

The three horses started at an easy gait. The 
sun was shining brightly, yet the heat was not 
oppressive. It was such a heat as some ani- 
mals love to bask in, and which even to lordly 
man is not always unwelcome. It was a heat 
suggesting fields of drying hay, and other fields 
wherein the flowers and all that blooms are ripe 
to seed ; from which comes up the chorus of 
unnumbered insects — a sloth-inducing heat, a heat 
to throw one’s self at length in the grass, and, cov- 
ering the face, enjoy. 

Walking slowly up and trotting gayly down, the 
stage pursues its way along the hilly, winding 
road. A facetious inhabitant of the town of 
Limington, the end of this stage-route, discourses 
volubly upon matters small and great with all 
the wisdom that a visit to Boston has imparted, 
venting his lighter feelings ever and anon by a 
vigorous punch and cheerful exclamation, “ Wake 
up, Jim ! you’re goin’ to sleep, Jim !” It is 


30 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 


needless to say Jim isn’t, and unnecessary to add 
lie would like to. 

The stage stops for awhile at the post-office in 
Moderation. The mail is delivered to one among 
the group of admiring villagers. “ Where’s my 
( Saturday Night’ ?” “ And my 6 Weekly’?” 
“’S that my ‘Ledger 9 ?” and other similar ques- 
tions betray the thirst for knowledge. The fa- 
miliar papers are distributed as the stage passes 
on. Several other stops are made, and as many 
passengers alight. Last of these, the man who 
means to secure a “ deck ” passage goes swinging 
up a walk and disappears. 

Soon the road runs along the high bank of 
the river. On the right a hill rises from the road 
to the height of some sixty or seventy feet ; be- 
low, at the left, through the trees the river glis- 
tens. Both hill and bank are thickly wooded, 
and the road passing between is cool and shady. 
When opposite the island where the tent is pitched, 
a view is caught of the flag flapping lazily against 
its pole, and even a glimpse of the tent is obtained 
through the branches. In answering salutation a 
handkerchief flag attached to the lamrod is waved. 
The stage stops, and the horses drink from a trough 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CL UB. 31 

of the coolest, sweetest water ever tired stage horse 
drank, which trickles its way down from two half- 
sunken barrels some little distance above. The 
horses resume their easy pace, and soon the journey 
is over. 

Will and the Doctor appeared and received with 
joy the erring but repentant trunk. It was put in 
a wagon and driven down upon the island. Ra- 
ther an unusual way to obtain access to an island 
was this, but the most convenient under the cir- 
cumstances. The road crossed the island by 
means of a bridge at either side, and it was, there- 
fore, only necessary to drive across a bridge, let 
down the bars and drive down to the camp. A very 
prosaic and far from poetical island in this re- 
spect, perhaps, but a most convenient one. 

The first coffee was made that night, and tasted 
better than any ever before partaken of, albeit 
grounds were more plenty than in the home 
article. 

The captain organized his men. Each man 
was to cook his meal in turn, and for next meal 
go after a supply of milk and water for his suc- 
cessor. 

Jim tried his ramrod. It was too short ! 


32 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 


CHAPTER IV. 

f The second night was more comfortable than 
the first. Rubber blankets, considering the heavy- 
dew, were comfortable acquisitions ; the penny- 
royal, plentifully spread over face and hands and 
soaking handkerchiefs placed around the neck, dis- 
comfited the enemy ; and the frightened horses hut 
seldom awakened the Doctor to duty by racing 
madly past. Jack's little rifle and Jim's invalid 
gun were carefully put to bed, tenderly wrapped 
in the rubber blankets. 

Early breakfasts were in fashion at the camp. 
For various reasons fashion was implicitly obeyed,* 
among others the fact that the interior of the tent 
soon became unbearably hot ; and late breakfasts 
at a table, immovably fixed, in the full blaze of 
the sun, were far from enjoyable. 

Early associations clung strongly to John, and 
had a powerful effect upon him in the performance 
of his culinary duties. At every meal he cooked 
he provided mush. Desire what they would for 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CL UB. 33 

breakfast, dinner or supper, they always found 
mush. Often, it is true, he conceded so much to 
the prejudices of the others as to supply them with 
other food, but he never omitted the mush from 
his bill of fare. He and Will were the only ones 
partial to it, but they took it regularly. 

An important labor-saving discovery was early 
made. It is hard to remove grease from tin plates, 
but molasses can easily be washed off. From the 
time of the discovery of this fact down to the last 
meal in camp, it became the unwritten law of the 
club that each man should always finish his meal 
with bread and molasses, a law all the more readily 
and cheerfully obeyed because of the rule that each 
should wash his own dish. A plentiful supply of 
molasses to each plate ; vigorous application for a 
few moments of a slice of bread ; and grease and 
stain disappeared so effectually as to render the 
after cleansing in the river naught but a pleasing 
form. 

When the breakfast this second morning was 
about finished, the camp received a visitor. He 
came down slowly, box of salt in one hand and 
bit in the other, and was at once hailed with 
“Good morning, Uncle Charles.” “Come and 


34 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 


have some breakfast, Uncle Charles.” He seated 
himself and gazed upon the fragments before him. 

“No, thank you, boys. I’ve just come down 
after Dick. He always comes when I call him. 
Ho ! 4 Dick ! Richard ! Tally-ho Lane ! ” and off 
he went with the extended salt and secreted hit 
to hunt up the Dick that “always came when he 
called him.” 

The day was warm, too warm for violent motion. 
Studious Will lay at full length in the grass just 
within the shade of a tree. Jack extended his 
form along a rude bench under the trees, put up 
a few years before by the “Adventists ” for open- 
air meetings, and passed the time waiting for the 
appearance of a squirrel within reach of his rifle 
varying the monotony of his watch by making use 
of the one-time pulpit as a target. Jim sat on 
another bench making some already necessary re- 
pairs in his attire. His reconstructed gun lay 
calmly at his feet. Harmless it lay, nothing be- 
traying its slumbering power — power as yet un- 
known to its master, as he had as yet succeeded in 
inducing it to go off but once, and that once after 
careful priming grain by grain. But the most in- 
teresting picture was afforded by the special cor- 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 


35 


respondent of “ The Evening ” Inspiration 

undoubtedly possessed his pen as it glided fiercely 
over page after page, for he certainly wrote of 
that which his “eye had not seen nor ear heard/' 
Inspiration doubled him up in a heap at a little 
distance from the others. His attitude was far 
from dignified : nothing in his outward appearance 
proclaimed the man within. His blue shirt was 
no finer, nor was there anything in his attire 
superior to the common herd around him. Nay, 
the villainously shaped and variously colored 
monster straw hat he had picked up in his first 
prowl after items, rendered his appearance even 
less respectable. He ceased his writing and, 
jumping upon a prostrate tree, took off the hat 
and threw it upon the ground. His auditors at 
once bared their heads, and every eye was fixed 
upon him. A moment of breathless silence fol- 
lowed, and then he spoke : 

“ How's this, boys ? ‘ This is one of the lumber 
regions, and a look at the great monsters as they 
pass down the river is, to a novice, not uninterest- 
ing. Floating slowly along above the dam, they 
appear in their true character — lifeless things. 
But watch them as they near the great fall. 


36 


THE ANTI-BILEB SHIRT CLUB. 


Quickening their pace unwillingly, they dash over, 
and disappear entirely beneath the surface. Then, 
reappearing, leap to some height above the stream, 
as if overjoyed that the dread ordeal is over, and go 
on their way apparently rejoicing/ 99 

He ceased. Ho noisy applause followed — his 
words had sunk too deep. With admiration they 
gazed upon the prodigy of the club — admiration 
before which the consciousness of the fact that 
this was their hero’s first visit to that region ; that 
it was a dry season ; and that as a consequence 
neither logs nor yet even water had passed over 
that dam for weeks, was obliterated. Truthful 
Will was the first to recover. 

“ Did you see all that P ” 

“ Of course not,” scornfully returned the 
“ Special,” “ but others have, and that’s the way 
it looks.” 

This did not destroy the admiration with which 
he was regarded by his friends, but their admira- 
tion underwent a change of character. 

J ack went out and succeeded in bringing in a 
squirrel, shot by the gun. Jealousy consumed 
Jim. To think that the first successful shot with 
the gun he had carried so far should be made by 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 


37 


another hand than his, was more than he could 
hear. After considerable delicate maneuvering 
with the short ramrod, he succeeded in preparing 
the gun for intended destruction. Then he 
marched off. A squirrel sat upon a branch a few 
feet from the leveled gun. The hammer fell, the 
cap exploded, and the squirrel moved not, hut sat 
and gazed sympathetically at the unfortunate fire- 
arm. Another cap did more thorough work, and 
the squirrel was rewarded for its temerity by being 
riddled with shot ; for the gun, however uncertain 
in its explosions, when it did go off left nothing to 
be desired in the way of destruction. The frag- 
ments were gathered together, and the trophy of 
his skill triumphantly borne back by Jim. 

That afternoon Jack washed his feet. This is 
not, perhaps, a very startling announcement to 
make ; nor was this an action so rare with him as 
to be worthy of special remark. But his ablu- 
tions were interrupted, and in the interruption lies 
the reason for this paragraph. He sat upon a 
rock, moving his feet slowly to and fro in the cool 
water, pensively watching the minnows swimming 
about, eager to devour the bits of grease and 
crumbs thrown into the water where the <c crock- 


38 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 


ery ” was washed after each meal. The water 
was low in the little river ; it was easily crossed 
by stepping from rock to rock. Above, on the 
other side, he could see through the trees an oc- 
casional wagon pass. Two figures, that of a man 
and a woman, came down the road and halted op- 
posite Jack. They climbed the low fence at the 
edge of the hank, and descended the bank. Soon 
they emerged from the hushes near by, and ap- 
proached. Jack looked up. 

“ Do you make baskets ? ” 

Before he had time to reply, in language 
befitting a member of the A. B. S. C. repelling the 
insinuation conveyed in her question, the man at 
once suppressed his companion. 

“ They ain’t gypsies ; they’re gentlemen from 
New York camping out here. He’s one of ’em.” 

The woman didn’t repeat her question. After 
a few moments conversation with Jack, who never 
let an opportunity to talk go by unimproved, they 
climbed the bank and went their way. 

Broiled ham is delicious, especially when broiled 
by yourself, away from such modern conveniences 
as appertain to civilized cookery. To be sure, 
primitive fireplaces have their drawbacks. Two 


THE ANT1-B1LED SHIRT CLUB . 


39 


forked sticks, one at either side of a bright wood 
fire, with coffee-pot hanging between, or wire 
broiler stretched from one to the other, are a pleas- 
ing sight. But then wood will burn, and forked 
sticks are but wooden. 

A glorious fire was built. The wire broiler was 
tightly stretched across from one stick to the 
other. Slices of ham were delicately balanced 
upon the broiler, and soon sizzled melodiously. 
To turn one destroyed the equilibrium. One side 
of the balanced broiler being lightened, by the law 
of gravitation the other descended, and by that 
other law whereby a slice of buttered bread invari- 
ably falls butter-side down upon carpet or floor, 
its burden dropped into the fire. The ham was 
quickly raked out, and soon was sputtering as 
cheerfully as ever. A sprinkling of ashes but 
adds an unusual, novel taste to ham — and harms 
it not. 

The broiler was removed, and in its place the 
Doctor solemnly placed his pail of mush to boil. 
It was progressing finely, and had already com- 
menced to bubble. The fire would soon need re- 
plenishing. He moved off after wood. A hiss, 
and a bumping of tin against stone, startled him. 


40 


TEE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB , 


His beloved mush was spread over the dying em- 
bers of the fire it had extinguished in its fall. He 
made a few remarks to the surrounding grinning 
youth, and then marched off to chop another 
forked stick to replace the charred fragments of 
the one at his feet. 

That night they received a donation. Some 
cucumbers, with the compliments of u Uncle 
Charles,” invaded the camp. 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 


41 


CHAPTER V. 

How blessed it is to be remembered! The 
cucumbers were received with feelings too sacred for 
exposure. The club was grateful, too grateful to 
destroy and consume the emblems of generous re- 
membrance. They looked upon the green beau- 
ties with no carnal appetite. They placed them 
reverently away as things to be worshipped but 
not to be touched. Jim alone entertained sacri- 
legious desires. His mouth watered as he gazed. 
He longed to make them his own. 

At dead of night, when all was still, and no 
sound save the soft sighing of the wind in the 
tree-tops and the faint buzz of enraged and dis- 
gusted mosquitoes as they fled from the death- 
dealing penny-royal, was heard, he stealthily arose. 
The star-light faintly illumed the open tent. It 
revealed the prize. He seized and devoured. No 
qualms of conscience shook his purpose firm. He 
ate, and gazed unmoved in the slumbering faces 
of those whose feelings he was so outraging. 


42 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB. ' 


The unnatural banquet was over. He carefully 
threw far from the tent each bit of rind, and de- 
stroyed every betraying mark ; then lay down 
between his innocent companions and slept as only 
hardened guilt can sleep. One cucumber would 
never be missed. 

J ack went for milk and water for breakfast. He 
came back with something else besides. He de- 
livered a card to each man. Each was directed in 
the handwriting of Uncle Charles. And each, on 
the other side, proclaimed the glad tidings that 
Doctor Lane’s celebrated “ Comfort ” was an in- 
fallible remedy for all ills and pains imaginable. 
A light dawned upon them. Was Doctor Lane, 
whom they familiarly knew as Uncle Charles, 
after all so very generous in his donation of the 
night before ? The idols were hurled from their 
position, Will remarking as the last disappeared, 
“ I’m glad none of us ate any.” 

Jim became uneasy. His secret banquet began 
to trouble, not his mind, but his body. What in 
his make-up took the place of a conscience soon 
was thoroughly aroused. He wished he hadn’t 
eaten the cucumber. Eemorse seized him ; too 
late he repented of his act. Unhappy, he flew 


THE ANTI-BILEB SHIRT CLUB. 


43 


for “ comfort ” to Uncle Charles. But his case 
was beyond even its wonderful powers. Another 
and more pleasant remedy was demanded and pre- 
scribed. He drank, and the load upon his con- 
science was, in a measure, removed. He left the 
presence of his physician feeling much better, the 
cork of a pocket-flask just peeping out of his back 
pocket, promising faithfully to observe directions 
and dose himself at every recurrence of his pangs. 
All through that day his pains returned with 
alarming frequency, and long duration ; nor was 
he thoroughly cured for over a week. 

Will and John started off on along tramp to a 
lake of which they had heard. Jack knew of a 
place, not far from the camp, where he had dis- 
covered an abundance of blueberries. They would 
add a desirable item to the evening’s bill of fare. 
So he took Jim and a pail and started through 
the woods and across the island. The berries 
were not so plenty as he expected, so he wandered 
off in search of a more abundant field of labor. 
Jim’s condition was opposed to exertion. He 
would sit and admire the view, awaiting Jack’s 
return. 

He was on the bank of the “ old ” river, so 


44 


THE ANTLBILED SHIRT CLUB. 


called to distinguish it from the stream that parts 
from it at the head of the island, returning again 
at the end of the island. The hank was high, and 
skirted with trees. Below was “ Bunce’s Rocks,” 
of great local celebrity. This was an exceptionally 
rocky part of a rocky river bed. The great rocks, 
rising partially above the water here and there, 
created, all along their uneven, irregular stretch 
across the river, miniature water-falls, the water 
pouring over the rocks in sheets. Below these 
little falls the water was churned into rapids. 
Caught in these rapids, a fishing-pole bent with 
the force of the water, springing up at times 
almost to a straight position, but immediately 
bowing again to its fate. A log, coming diving 
and plunging over, would strike upon a rock in 
the rapids, and, swinging around across the stream, 
form an impromptu boom, holding back for a 
few moments the logs that followed it, but giving 
way at once before the blow of some monster 
that came forcing its way through and over every 
obstacle. Altogether the scene was one of more 
than beauty. 

Jim lay upon the bank under a tree, drinking 
in this scene of beauty ; drinking in, also, some- 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 


45 


thing eise to assuage his pains. A squirrel ran 
down the tree above him, and sat near by watch- 
ing him, then scampered up the tree. Jim did 
not move. The water below roared on monoton- 
ously; the warming sunbeams just reached him 
through the branches. Jack returned with a few 
berries, in company with a native and his dog. 
Jim was invisible. They approached the bank. 
On his face in the grass, with the black bottle half 
out of his pocket, Jim was asleep. 

Late in the afternoon the pilgrims returned 
from their long tramp. They had seen much to 
delight and instruct. Better than this, the spe- 
cial correspondent had picked up some items. 
Better still, he had found occasion to use his 
“ open sesame,” and had received evidence of its 
power. 

He waited not to satisfy the appetite aroused 
by his lengthened tramp. He was possessed of 
but one thought, one desire — he longed to give to 
a waiting world the all-important items he had 
collected. Soon as he reached the camp he seized 
his writing materials, and soon was doubled up 
in the now familiar heap. His fingers convul- 
sively grasped the pen, and his remarkable hat 


46 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 


fairly trembled under the labors of the brain be- 
neath. And this is what he wrote : 

“ Five miles away is the staid old town of 
Standish. The road lies through a picturesque 
country, rather sparsely settled. Ferns of many 
varieties, running pine and wild flowers abound.” 

He confessed privately, when closely pressed, 
that he had seen but few ferns, and been able to 
discover no running pine ; but he had been as- 
sured that the latter existed, and so wrote by faith 
and not by sight. 

“ The houses, though old, do not possess the 
low overhanging eaves peculiar to those of the old 
Dutch settlers, usually the sign of antiquity 
elsewhere. The town is a very good type of the 
more primitive New England village. Each 
house is as white as driven snow, and every front 
window closed by green blinds.” 

Following the instincts of his tribe, he made a 
discovery : 

“ Entering the humble tavern bearing the sign, 
‘ Standish House/ the first thing noticed is the old 
clock standing in its coffin-like case in the corner. 
Not that this is the only old clock in the neigh- 
borhood, but because its ancient face has an air of 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 


47 


respectability quite in keeping witu the friendly 
countenances of the old tavern-keeper and his wife. 

“ After indulging in a glass of delicious mead 
and a chat with the host, who had been born in 
the house seventy-five years ago, and lived there 
all his life, the writer crossed the road and entered 
an establishment well worth noticing. It was a 
coat manufactory, though in external appearance 
more like a large private residence or boarding 
house.” 

The proprietor was a “ thorough Yankee,” but 
didn’t receive his visitor at first very cordially. 
He appeared suspicious of the correspondent’s 
personal appearance, and therein was not to 
blame, for surely in his appearance there was little 
to invite confidence. But the all-powerful paper 
once produced, everything gave way before it. 
The mighty power of the press opened the closed 
doors of the factory at once, even to this strangely 
attired interviewer. The Yankee proprietor could 
not be too obliging. He showed — he explained. 

u The woolen cloth is made in Massachusetts, 
sold in New York, cut out in Boston, sewed 
into coats and trimmed here, and sent back to 
Boston.” 


48 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 


This much was learned. The correspondent’s 
mighty brain unaided made the astounding de- 
duction : 

“ For all this roundaboutness the consumer has 
to pay.” 

The Yankee received his reward. The notice 
of his establishment closed with the words, “ The 
work is exceedingly well done.” 

But the crowning item in the day’s collection 
is yet to follow : 

“ During the tramp back to Bonny Eagle, your 
correspondent had the good fortune to meet the 
e oldest inhabitant/ and learned that he was for 
six months on board a privateer in 1812, and had 
also served on board the ‘ Constitution/ ” 

This was enough for one day’s work. His last 
item amply rewarded him for his tramp. But he 
discovered, before he mailed his letter, that his 
centenarian was a delusion and a snare. This 
discovery he appended to his letter, in the form 

of a postscript, but “ The Evening ” omitted, 

for some reason, to insert it with the letter. 

The club went visiting that night. In single 
file, the bearer of the lantern ahead, they marched 
along their island path, climbed the bars, crossed 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB . 


49 


the bridge, and soon were in the presence of their 
civilized friends of (i the house/' They appeared 
in full uniform, the Doctor wearing his hat. The 
evening quickly passed, and the time for depar- 
ture arrived. Jim was advised to remain in the 
house that night, and so saw the others depart, 
bearing with them his injunction to see that his 
gun was put carefully to bed as usual. The three 
forms were soon lost in the darkness, nothing be- 
ing visible but the bobbing light a few inches 
above where the ground was supposed to be. 
They made themselves heard, however, to the 
arousing of the wrath of a peacefully dreaming 
household they passed. 

The weather had changed, and the night was 
very cold. * The ladies, watching the lights from 
the door as it disappeared around a turn of the 
road, shivered as they re-entered the house. 

The trio marched cheerily on, Jack enlivening 
the journey with much melodious singing, which 
was not universally appreciated. A native, 
ai-oused from his sweet slumbers, opened with 
vigor a brief conversation, which occasioned a 
break in the music, but did not cause it to cease. 

They were not unconscious of the coldness of 


50 THE ANT1-BILED SHIRT CL UB. 

the atmosphere, and the grass of the island path 
was even damper than usual; but they didn't 
mind it. They reached the tent, and, wrapped in 
coats, overcoats and blankets, composed themselves 
to sleep. That is, Will and Jack did, hut the 
Doctor scorned to use more than the usual cover- 
ing. The blanket was enough for him. He was 
cold proof. He had camped before. 

Some one stirring in the tent awoke Will, who 
slept none too soundly in his comfortable position 
at the door of the tent. 

“ Who's there ?” 

“All right, Will." 

The Doctor was putting on his overcoat. He 
lay down and silence followed. 

The cold proved too much for J ack. He awoke 
in a shiver. The place at his side was empty. 
The Doctor's blanket lay in a heap — no Doctor 
was inside of it. What had become of him ? 
Misery loves company, and here was the company 
disappearing. 

Jack lifted a little the side of the tent, and 
looked out. No, he had not rolled outside. Air, 
colder even than that within the tent, entered, 
and Jack quickly dropped the canvas. But 


THE ANT1-B1LED SHIRT CLUB. 


51 


something else had entered — a faint beam of 
light. He heard a slight crackling. This was 
suggestive ; the sound was familiar. He went 
outside. By the fireplace, bending over a few 
damp twigs which he was trying to coax into a 
warming blaze, rubbing his hands together with 
anything but delight, stood the Doctor. He wa3 
tough 1 and he wasn’t cold 1 

Breakfast was early that morning, the earliest 
yet partaken of. 


52 


THE AN1I-BILED SHIRT CLUB , 


CHAPTER VI. 

The sun came out strong and clear, and soon 
dispelled the cold. Will remained at the camp 
during the morning, studiously inclined ; the 
others wandered off. He seated himself, book in 
hand, in the shade of the trees some little dis- 
tance from the tent, and soon became absorbed in 
his reading. 

Some time previous a basket of potatoes had 
been received from “ the house.” It had hardly 
been touched. A single experiment in cooking 
the potatoes was all that was attempted. Half 
a dozen were placed in the ashes of the breakfast 
fire, and remained there. The next cook discov- 
ered them, and warmed them over in the ashes of 
his fire. He, too, forgot them, and in the ashes 
they remained. The third cook was less careless, 
and the roasted potatoes formed a part of the re- 
past he provided. But they had been remembered 
when too late. They were cooked not wisely, but 
too well, and there was no one willing to befriend 


THE ANTI-B1LED SHIRT CLUB. 


53 


them. No attempt was made to cook the pota- 
toes in any other way, as such an attempt would 
necessitate labor which no one wanted to perform. 
So full the basket remained. 

The basket stood within the tent near the en- 
trance. Will looked up from his book, and saw a 
sight that roused his righteous indignation. A 
cow's hind quarters protruded from the tent; where 
the rest of its body was, he easily imagined. He 
started on a run for the tent, and routed the 
enemy before much destruction had been done. 
The cow showed a disposition to renew the attack. 
She was reinforced by others of her kind, and 
hovered near. Will was not to be defeated by 
such enemies. He meant to save the potatoes, 
and save them he would. He was stubborn ; he 
took up a position at the entrance of the tent. 
But he was also studious ; he collected about him 
weapons sufficient to repel the invaders, and re- 
sumed his reading. At every approach Will would 
look up, hurl a stick or stone with a yell that sent 
the cows scampering out of range, and then quiet- 
ly resume the book. This heroic defence he kept 
up until, vanquished and disgusted, the enemy re- 
tired, and he was left master of the field when the 


54 


TEE ANTI-B1LEB SHIRT CLUB. 


boys returned for dinner. But all was in vain. 
What the cows could not accomplish by force 
they did by surprise; when no one was near the 
next day, they again invaded the camp, and not 
a potato escaped to t^ll the story of the slaugh- 
ter. 

Towards evening a storm came on. Jack and 
Jim were up at “the house.” A feminine scream 
of delight, “ Oh ! come here ! just look ! ” brought 
everybody out and up a little hillock behind the 
house. Looking off toward the mountains, they 
beheld a sight worthy of their admiration, and 
amply justifying the excitement of their fair alarm- 
ist. The view from their present position at all 
times was beautiful ; now it was more than beau- 
tiful. 

They stood at quite an elevation above the 
river and the surrounding country. The river was 
at their right, winding its peaceful way between 
broad sloping fields, with here and there a clnmp 
of trees, its banks hid all along its length by a 
thick growth of bushes and small trees. The eye 
could follow it for some distance toward the 
mountains, and then it was lost from sight. The 
white, dusty road below, bending and twisting 


THE ANT1-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 


55 


right and left with all the ingenuity of a country 
road, climbing up little hills and descending into 
miniature valleys, steadily progressed toward the 
little village hid in the trees below the mountains, 
the only indication of whose presence was the sin- 
gle church spire visible above the trees, and end- 
ed, so far as could he seen, in “ the plains/' a 
stretch of thickly wooded level land, through which 
the stage road ran. 

It was about sunset ; so everything their side of 
the mountains was in shadow. The mountain- 
tops themselves were bright with golden light. 
The dark clouds were gathering for the storm. 
One great black cloud rested over the mountains, 
but there was stayed, warded off by the belt of 
sunlight defending the mountains from its touch. 
There it remained, its limit strongly defined above 
the sunlight. Darkness and light had met, and 
neither gave way. They did not blend in any de- 
gree, nor did one seem to modify the other ; but 
each stood out separate and distinct. The rain 
commenced over the little village, and advanced, 
a wall of rain-drops, toward our spectators, its ad- 
vance heralded by hurrying clouds and winds that 
stirred up clouds of dust from the road in its 


56 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB . 


honor. Still the light above the mountains re- 
mained, and shone out clear through the veil of 
distant rain. Overhead the clouds gathered thick 
and black, riven every moment by flashing streaks 
of lightning. 

Jim thought he had time to get down to the 
camp before the storm reached it. The rain was 
advancing rapidly, but was still some distance 
back, and he thought he could outrun it. He had 
reached the road across the island, had passed 
through the dark covered bridge, and was just 
about to climb the fence and run down to the 
camp, when the race was lost. The storm burst 
upon him, and not a gently falling shower either i 
it was more like a deluge than a rain. He gave 
up the attempt to reach the camp, and made the 
best time possible under the circumstances along 
the road, over the other bridge, and into the shel- 
ter afforded by Uncle Charles' house. Soaked to 
the skin, he was hurried up stairs, and came down 
somewhat changed in the outer man. Jim was no 
giant, nor was he in any danger of soon receiving 
an invitation to membership in the “Fat Men's 
Club." The pair of Uncle Charles' pantaloons 
in which he was arrayed, were rolled up several 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 


57 


inches in their length ; and the coat was more 
“ double-breasted ” than fashion’s extreme ever re- 
quired. Uncle Charles was delighted. He trot- 
ted Jim out upon the verandah, and exhibited him 
to such of his acquaintances as happened to be 
near, and, failing these, to such strangers as passed 
in the road below. 

Jack appeared by the fence, about to start down 
the island. Uncle Charles hailed him, and he 
turned toward the house. The menagerie was 
hurried out of sight. The recruited spectator 
reached the verandah. The great living curiosity 
was brought out and exhibited to his expected ad- 
miring gaze. But the “ house ” was not appre- 
ciative. It didn’t hiss the “ spectacle,” but it re- 
marked, “ You're a pretty fellow, arn’t you ? ” 
and the exhibition was a failure. 

Down at the camp Will and the Doctor had 
been busy. They had secured the edges of the 
tent in time, and were jubilant over the successful 
way in which the tent outrode the storm. Nothing 
inside had been even dampened. No water had 
entered the tent, except a little pool where the 
doorstep of more permanent houses generally is, 
where the turf had been trodden down. 


58 


n HE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB . 


The rain had ceased, hut now recommenced in 
a light, steady shower. Prospects for a fire being 
rather dim, the thought of coffee for supper was 
abandoned. But milk and bread were not to be 
so dispensed with, and as usual one of the four 
was dispatched to procure them. As he left the 
tent and marched along the path, he presented a 
curious figure. It was the first time an opportu- 
nity had occurred to make use of his rubber blan- 
ket in the form of a “ poncho, ” and he of course 
improved it. The grass was very wet, so he dis- 
pensed with shoes and stockings. The blanket 
converted him into an irregular shape, having the 
form neither of man nor beast, nothing civilized 
appearing ’ except the Panama above it, and 
nothing human but the two fleshly poles that 
worked beneath it. 

Supper was eaten sitting or standing about an 
upturned soap-box for a table, through the open- 
ing of the tent the club watching with great satis- 
faction the falling rain from the vantage ground 
of their shelter, which had been tried and not 
found wanting. 

The rain brought back the departed mosquitoes 
in force, but the penny-royal again came to the 


THE ANTLBILED SHIRT CLUB. 59 

rescue, and the night was passed in peace by its 
helpless charge, safe in its protection. 

The fifth member of the club was expected next 
day, as were also three of their fair friends from 
Brooklyn. It was therefore decided that the club 
should proceed to the depot in force to receive them, 
as many as possible ride back with the ladies, 
while the others should escort the expected Bob 
to the camp on foot. No thought of his riding 
entered their heads. In order to combine the use- 
ful with the pleasant, some were to stop at the 
tin-shop in Moderation, where, for the modest re- 
compense of five cents, the club’s tin cups were 
undergoing that sufficient soldering which their 
hasty manufacture at the order of the influential 
Bob had prevented them receiving. They were to 
start early in the morning, and so soon sought re- 
pose. 


60 


THE ANTI-BILEI) SHIRT CLUB . 


CHAPTER VII. 

The haying season was at its height. Every 
one's horses were in use, by their owners or others, 
in hauling the plentiful hay from field to barn. 
It was with some difficulty that a horse was ob- 
tained, and when obtained it was so late that, 
when the station was reached by the three mem- 
bers of the A. B. S. C., their lady friends Avere 
discovered in a state of high disgust, having been 
waiting with all of woman’s patience, as they de- 
clared, for several hours. As a matter of fact the 
train had been in and gone but a short time, but 
no one was brave or ungallant enough to mention 
the fact. Their party was sufficiently large to fill, 
with the youthful driver, the Avagon, and fill it 
Avell ; and so any hope entertained by any indo- 
lent one of the three of escaping the long walk 
back was abandoned. They stood on the station 
platform and saAV the Avagon-load of beauty drive 
off, and then turned about in search of something 
to occupy the time they must pass in aAvaiting 


THE ANT1-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 


61 


the arrival of the one o'clock train, which they ex- 
pected would bring to their arms their absent 
comrade. Nothing very exciting appeared to at- 
tract their attention. Jack sought peace and con- 
tentment in smoke, hut had to work for it first. 
Jim had carried the tobacco in his coat pocket, 
the only coat worn on the occasion. Jack had 
asked him for some just as the wagon was about 
to leave, but for some reason he did not receive it ; 
and as the wagon was rapidly driving away, a 
brilliant idea suggested itself to Jim : he would 
economize his strength. Rushing after the wagon, 
which stopped to see what was the matter, he 
threw in his coat, and returned with great satis- 
faction, diminished somewhat, however, when the 
tobacco was again asked for. But Jack was not 
to be so daunted. He marched down the hot, 
dusty road to the store in the little village below 
the station, and returned triumphant with some 
villainous tobacco and two or three sticks of anti- 
quated candy. 

The Doctor was still full of his high and holy 
office of “ special correspondent/’ and so inter- 
viewed everybody he could find. Everybody was 
far from legion, and he picked up but few items. 


62 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 


One measure, however, of momentous importance 
to the public weal, was discussed in his presence, 
and he listened with avidity to the debate. The 
well near the station had been supplied with a 
chain pump, if pump it can be called, which chain 
pump did not afford satisfaction to those by whose 
suffrance it existed, and whose servant it was sup- 
posed to be. They were dissatisfied with it ; its 
removal was demanded by the voice of the intelli- 
gent citizens of the neighborhood, and the erection 
of a good and efficient suction pump in its place 
was called for. But this, as is often the case in 
weightier matters, was not to be accomplished by 
demanding the one and calling for the other. In- 
dignation had no effect upon the old, nor did 
resolutions that it ought to be removed replace it 
with the new pump. Nor did everybody put his 
hand in his pocket and spontaneously subscribe. 
If such had been the case, our “ special ” would 
not have overheard the weighty arguments brought 
forward by the bearer of the subscription paper, 
designed to raise a fund wherewith to erect a 
“new wooden pump in place of the old chain pump 
near the station in the Town of Buxton,” to in- 
duce a backward acquaintance to subscribe. He 


f 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 


63 


was finally successful in his efforts : ’Bijah So-and- 
so had signed, and what the man would not do 
from a spirit of public regard he did because of this 
weighty fact — he signed. 

Jim got his shoe patched. This young man had 
been unfortunate, from the beginning, in his attire. 
His baggage had been the smallest in the camp, 
and the demand for various articles of dress had 
been so much greater than had been anticipated 
that his supply was early exhausted. It became 
a standing joke at the camp, in seasons of absence 
of amusement, to guess how much of his attire 
of right owed him allegiance as its lord and mas- 
ter ; and when fully rigged for a visit of an even- 
ing to “the house,” the conundrum, “Whose 
shirt or collar, necktie or socks, has Jim on ?” was 
one that was immediately given up, no man pre- 
suming to hazard an opinion, of one thing only 
being certain — that, whose soever they were, they 
were not his own. His only pair of shoes had 
been no exception to the general fate ; they, too, 
had given out. 

Near the station a cobbler had set up his es- 
tablishment. It was not a very extensive one, 
but afforded a chance to repair the shoes. The 


64 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 


old man was found, about to begin to get ready 
to think of setting to work. He seemed to have 
gone no farther than this. He looked at the 
shoes. “ They ain’t worth mending,” was the 
candid opinion he expressed. The case was ex- 
plained to him, and when he learned their lone 
and solitary condition, out of pure philanthropy 
he engaged to do what he could in the way of 
repairs. But on one point he was firm. He was 
decidedly of the opinion that it would be impos- 
sible to patch two such shoes in three hours ; he 
might, by utmost industry, succeed in getting 
one done by the arrival of the train, but two it 
would be folly to attempt. There was no help 
for it ; so the worst shoe was left, a mammoth 
brogan stepped into in its place, and Jack and Jim 
left the old man to his labors. 

In half an hour they went back, and found he 
had commenced. His manner of procedure was 
somewhat primitive. He was generous in the size 
of the patch, which he had selected from the 
“ thinnest piece of calf he had.” His remark to 
this effect was the occasion of a desire to see what 
he considered a thick leather, but no expression 
to it was given. He took up with his awl a 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 


65 


welt of the original leather of the shoe, and to 
this sewed the edge of his fine calf-skin, ham- 
mering the seam down to something near the 
level of the rest of the shoe. He did not work 
very fast. “It ain’t no use to hurry me,” he 
remarked as he with great deliberation punched 
a hole through the leather, and adjusted his 
spectacles to bear upon his work. “ I’m slow. 
Some folks is always in a hurry ; I ain’t. I can’t 
never work when I’m hurried. I get kinder flur- 
ried, and things goes wrong.” 

“ Don’t see what’s the matter with these ends,” 
he continued, as the bristle came off one he was 
using, necessitating considerable delay before a 
new one was substituted, “ they never did so be- 
fore.” 

“ Stitch, stitch, stitch,” the work proceeded. 
The room was a queer one. It had been used in 
various ways ; according to the old man, it had 
lately been used as a store. But evidences of 
another use appeared through the opening into 
the loft above, and in an old cutter that stood 
near the cobbler’s bench. Two or three ragged 
little urchins came in at the open door, and 
climbing into the rickety old sleigh, enjoyed a 


66 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB . 


silent, motionless ride. At one side of the room 
what had been a counter extended. In a corner 
in the front of the room, a little “ office v was 
boarded off. Here there was little to be seen but 
dust. On the pine “ desk ” it lay thick and un- 
disturbed. From a hook hung a few dusty pa- 
pers. These, examined, proved to be town docu- 
ments — printed records of the proceedings of the 
fathers in their care over the town, their disburse- 
ments in various ways, for the repair of roads, etc., 
and especially the town “poor farm.” 

Conversation did not expedite the labors on the 
shoe. The old man’s spectacles could not be 
aimed at two points at once, and talking was too 
attractive to him. So again he was left to soli- 
tary labor. 

A few minutes before the train was due, his 
customer again appeared before him. “ It’s most 
done,” he said, as he slowly pulled tight the last 
stitch and proceeded to give the finishing touches 
with his hammer. The shoe was a sight to be- 
hold. The patch extended all along one side, 
giving to it an appearance of strength that cer- 
tainly was lacking in the other side, but adding 
to it no new and unessential beauty. The old 


THE AN TI-BILED SHIRT CL UB. 67 

man had mentioned, with contempt, a cobbler 
down in the village, who had new-fangled notions 
and didn't know how to work. Could he have 
seen this job of his ancient rival, his feelings can 
easily be imagined. Nor is there ground for sus- 
picion that he would have laid any unlawful claim 
to the workmanship as his own. It was such a 
production as no cobbler with u new-fangled ” 
ideas need ever attempt. Sure failure awaits any 
such presumption. 

The train came in. No Bob sprang eagerly up- 
on the platform, nor was he discoverable in any 
corner of any car. The train moved away from 
the station and down the straight track towards 
Portland, its proportions diminishing as it went, 
and the conclusion was forced upon the beholders 
that Bob hadn’t come. 

What had become of him ? The Doctor felt 
anxious, and talked of telegraphing home to Bob’s 
mother, but was persuaded to desist. Bob might 
have missed the train, or been delayed somewhere. 
Although he was blessed with such childlike in- 
nocence of spirit, and his countenance and appear- 
ance were so sweet and attractive, no thought of 
his six feet of person having been abducted entered 


63 TEE anti-biled shirt cl ub. 

the minds of his disappointed friends, except for 
one brief wild moment that of the Doctor. But 
the Doctor felt a sort of responsibility in the mat- 
ter ; for he it was who had caused Bob to join the 
club. He was persuaded to wait until Monday : 
then if Bob did not present himself, and no word 
came from him, he declared he would go in search 
of him. 

The long, hot tramp hack was not so cheerful 
as might have been. Part of it, especially the 
path through fields on the hank of the river, was 
not without its joys, hut now these were not ap- 
preciated. Ho one was sorry when the camp was 
reached. 

Will had been industrious in their absence. He 
had been up to the store, and had returned laden 
with empty soap and starch boxes, of various sizes, 
which he had turned to divers uses. Two of the 
largest of these boxes he had nailed, standing on 
end, to a bench which had been put up along 
the side of the tent. Each of these was divided 
into two compartments by a shelf, and one of these 
four compartments was assigned to each of those 
now belonging to the camp. Again poor Bob was 
forgotten, and no provision was made for him. 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 


69 


Thus came into being what in time were variously 
spoken of as “ my Wardrobe,” “ Bureau,” or 
“ Library When preparations were made for 
the club’s departure, and the tent had been taken 
down, these structures stood out alone in all their 
beauty, marking out the place where the habita- 
tion of the club had been. 


70 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 


CHAPTER VIII. 

Sunday's breakfast of a pot of deliciously baked 
beans, prepared by the benevolent hand of “ Aunt 
Rie,” Uncle Charles' better half, was devoured 
with great satisfaction. It brought to remem- 
brance in a pleasant manner the Saturday night 
or Sunday morning meal in homes where New 
England customs still prevailed to some extent. 
Even the claims of the beloved mush were over- 
looked, paling in the light of this new deity, be- 
fore whom even the Doctor bowed down and did 
reverence to the extent of having no other gods 
before it. So it came to pass that no mush bub- 
bled invitingly above the fire that morning. 

A delegation walked with due decorum to the 
church, a mile or so away, attired in their best. 
After much discussion it had been decided to lay 
aside the every-day camp dress, and to make as 
good an appearance as possible. One rule, how- 
ever, was not transgressed, except when away from 
restraining influence and reproof by Jack, and 


THE ANTI-B1LED SHIRT CLUB. 


71 


surreptitiously and unsatisfactorily oy the Doctor. 
It was resolved that no razor was to touch the 
face of any man during the two weeks of camp- 
life. Shaving savored too much of the convention- 
alities of civilization to he tolerated — tooth brushes 
had been reluctantly conceded, hut razors were 
positively tabooed. 

But as the straggling hairs came out upon the 
youthful chins, the visages of Jack and the Doc- 
tor came more and more to diminish in beauty. 
They did not mind this during the week, but when 
it was decided at breakfast that morning that 
they should make themselves presentable as pos- 
sible, and they remembered the razorial proscrip- 
tion, a strange look of desperate, reckless deter- 
mination, entirely foreign to their ingenuous coun- 
tenances, settled upon their faces. The Doctor 
was first through with his breakfast, and came up 
from the river with his cleansed dishes before the 
others were ready to descend to it with their un- 
washed ones. He entered the tent and remained 
there so long that a committee of the whole 
went to investigate the cause. He was discovered 
in the act. Kneeling down in one corner of the 
tent before a small pocket looking-glass he had 


72 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB , 


fastened to the canvas, scissors in hand, he was 
busily engaged. To rush upon him and seize the 
offending instrument was the work of a moment. 
But it was too late. The Doctor resigned the 
scissors without a struggle, and looked up at its 
captors with a face mildly triumphant in expres- 
sion. Most of his objectionable beard had dis- 
appeared. 

Immediately after breakfast Jack walked away. 
He was meditative, and sought solitude, something 
unusual to his social nature. He asked for no 
one’s company. Arrived at Uncle Charles’ house, 
he stood upon the verandah and looked secretly 
around him. No one was near of whom he stood 
in fear. Across the road there stood a house. In 
that house there lived an individual. And this 
instant before that house stood that individual. 
Some secret signal passed between them, and Jack 
crossed the road and disappeared within the house 
with his unknown companion. 

What followed, what strange performances were 
gone through with, we can but conjecture. Jack 
revealed but little when questioned, that little be- 
ing generally in the form of mysterious and in- 
distinct mutterings, not without a tinge of wrath 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB . 73 

in their tones. A figure emerged from the house 
in half an hour. It was Jack. He appeared 
among his friends a few minutes later, trying to 
appear innocent and satisfied, but, for all his as- 
sumed cheerfulness, his face looked fearfully “ cut 
up ” in more senses than one. He too had trans- 
gressed. 

In the afternoon a ride was indulged in. Two 
horses and as many wagons were secured, one 
horse being the old gray which, with the heavy 
leather-spring wagon to which he was attached, 
tri-weekly, or oftener if occasion demanded, made 
the journey as mail stage from Bonny Eagle, 
where the regular stage put up, to Limington. 
He was, doubtless, a very good horse in his way ; 
but his way was not, to dull, unappreciative souls, 
the most attractive. He had lived long in this 
world, and had learned resignation to its ills and 
trials. His unrufiled patience was not to be dis- 
turbed, and there was no exciting him to angry 
speed. Kepeated blows fell upon his hide un- 
heeded — he bore them with the triumphant pa- 
tience of a martyr. His spirit was one of peace, 
peace so profound that no such ills could disturb 
it, peace immovable. 


74 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 


We know not whether he is yet in this world. 
If so, we say this, that those who may meet him 
may value him at his true desert ; if he has de- 
parted, we drop these few sentences as a little 
blossom on his grave, a faint and imperfect testi- 
monial to his excellence of character. 

Each wagon contained, besides two of the young 
men, three or four specimens of lovely womankind. 
The Doctor drove one horse ; Jack sat on the front 
seat of the wagon pulled by the old gray — we can 
not bring ourselves to say of such a horse that he 
was driven by mortal hands, and are forced to 
make this distinction. 

They drove through the “plains.” The long, 
winding, level road, wide enough for but a single 
wagon, except at intervals where a “switch” for 
turning out had been cut, afforded a pleasant 
drive, which was thoroughly enjoyed. On either 
side of the narrow road bushes grew, even to its 
very edge. Much of the road lay through a 
growth of these low bushes, dwarf pines, etc., 
whose tops were easily overlooked from the wagon 
seats, presenting to the eye a stretch of almost 
level green, here and there a tree or exceptional 
bush rising above the surrounding level. Once 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 


75 

or twice places were passed where the bare ground 
and charred and blackened stumps of trees bore 
witness to the recent clearing by fire the land had 
experienced. Other parts of the road lay through 
woods, where the comparatively giant trees cast a 
cooling shade. 

Up a long gravel-paved hill the horses dragged 
the empty wagons, everybody in mercy getting 
out and following on foot. Above the hill the 
road again took up the even tenor of its way. 
Flies of venomous bite came out from the bushes 
in numbers and settled upon the devoted horses' 
heads. Tossing and shaking the heads disturbed 
them not. Branches fastened in the head gear 
served to diminish their numbers, but they did not 
wholly relinquish their prey until the open road 
was reached. 

Limington was reached and passed through. 
The old gray seemed to feel that he was upon the 
borders of the promised land. He seemed to feel 
that home and rest were near, and he exhibited 
even more than his accustomed patience under ad- 
versity when Jack endeavored to persuade him to 
turn his head towards Bonny Eagle. Jack’s ef- 
forts were at last crowned with success. 


76 


THE ANTI-BILEB SHIRT CLUB. 


Over the long and shaky bridge they drove, its 
loosened planks rattling under the horses' feet. 
Then down the road on the other side of the river, 
past where several little innocents were playing 
house, making use of the frame of a wagon top 
and some rags of carpet for the construction of 
their residence ; over the little obstructions placed 
in the track of the wheels by these same charming 
babes ; past the big chestnut tree where the girls 
wished to alight, and were persuaded to relinquish 
their desire by a revelation of the probable un- 
ripeness of its fruit ; here and there coming upon 
the river, and then as often receding from and los- 
ing it from sight, they continued on their way, 
reaching Uncle Charles’ some time before dark, 
and finding that gentleman, in the absence of wife 
and children, eating his solitary meal upon the 
verandah. 

That night the camp was early wrapped in 
slumber. Great deeds awaited the morning sun, 
and each sleeper retired to his pillow of satchel or 
overcoat impressed with a sense of the greatness 
and expected brilliant success of the morrow's 
undertaking. 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB 


77 


CHAPTER IX. 

“The pleasure of your company is respectfully 
requested at a Bal-Masque at the residence of 

Miss Susan , No. 2 Maiden Lane, Tuesday 

evening, July 18, 1876, at half-past seven 

o’clock.” 

Such was the invitation, a copy of which was 
duly directed to each and every man in the camp, 
Jack’s delighted hand brought down from “ the 
house.” A consultation was immediately held. 
The ladies had assumed an appropriate and de- 
scriptive name for their residence. Retaliation in 
kind must be resorted to. The “ special’s ” wri- 
ting materials were produced, and Jack was dis- 
patched back to the house, bearing an important 
document. 

“ Bachelors’ Bower, July 17, 1876. 
“Residents of No. 2 Maiden Lane : 

“ We beg to acknowledge the receipt of your kind 
invitation for Tuesday evening next, which we 
are delighted to accept. 

“ We respectfully request your attendance this, 


78 


THE AHTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 


Monday, evening at a banquet and f4te, to be 
given in the rooms of the club. 

“ Kespectfully, 

“ A. B. S. Club. 

“ Jim, Secretary. 
u Please be present at 4 p. m.” 

Much preparation was needed, and the camp 
soon presented an unusually busy and industrious 
appearance. Two fires were built. Over one pre- 
sided the form and big hat of the Doctor. It is 
needless to tell the nature of the food, the cooking 
of which received his fostering care. For hours he 
stood in patient silence over the hot fire, and then, 
as a result of his labors, proudly displayed on a 
bench under a tree, which did duty as a “ pantry,” 
a shining row of tin plates, generously heaped 
with a plentiful supply of mush of varied kind 
and degree of excellence. 

Over the other fire, out in the open, in the full 
blaze of the July sun, Will sweltered. A big 
black pot was the object of his care. His utmost 
efforts were devoted to keeping the fire beneath it 
brightly burning, and its contents free from any 
such unfortunate fate. For three mortal hours he 
stood, a hero at his post, and never flinched. What 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB . 


79 


though occasionally he could see a form stretched 
under a tree in indolent ease ? He envied not, 
but in brief phrase incited the sluggard to renewed 
diligence. Even the advent upon the scene of a 
bovine enemy, when all but he had left, which 
animal evinced a partiality for mush that ought to 
have delighted the Doctor, but perhaps would not 
have, interrupted his watchful labor but a moment. 
The enemy was driven away from “ the pantry,” 
and back to the fire went Will. 

It is said that a watched pot never boils. This 
one did. And Will found that appearances are 
deceptive, and that his sense of touch at the end 
of the fork was not accuracy itself. Prodding the 
fork into the meat told him that it was not yet 
done ; but when he came to take the pot oif the 
fire, and his boiled ham came out in handfuls, the 
evidence of its thorough cooking was overwhelm- 
ing. 

The pot was turned over to Jim, who proceeded 
immediately to manufacture therein the soup for 
the banquet. It was extracted from canned 
corned beef. Although an experiment, it was a 
grand success. Pice would add to the merit of 
the soup, and Jim proceeded to administer some. 


80 THE anti-biled shirt cl ub , 

He came from the tent, bearing a heaping cupful, 
intending to make the journey on the same errand 
as often as, in his judgment, the soup required. 
As he was about to pour the first cupful into the 
soup the scornful voice of the mush-maker caused 
him to pause 

“ What are you going to make there ? Kice 
pudding with corned beef in it ? Half of that is 
enough/' 

And so it proved. Half a cup was a suffi- 
ciency, and Jim had reason to be thankful, on 
behalf of his soup, that he had been stopped in 
time. 

Will relieved Jim for a time at the fire. That 
morning Uncle Charles, moved upon by a spirit 
of philanthropy, had sent down with the milk 
and bread one cold boiled potato, peeled. Ho 
one had felt inclined to devour it, so it lay neg- 
lected upon a bench. Thence it had fallen to the 
ground, where it had lain until now. Jack dis- 
covered it. 

“ 0, Will ! Here ! J ust the thing ! ’ 

And he tossed the potato to Will, who caught 
it, and, crumbling in his fingers, it became another 
ingredient of the soup. 


THE ANTI-B1LED SHIRT CLUB. 


81 


J ack broiled the bam, and turned out a very in- 
viting dish. To be sure each individual slice, 
with few exceptions, had in its turn dropped 
into the ashes below, some even repeating the ex- 
ercise a second and third time ; but none of the 
guests discovered this fact. Minute cinders, at- 
tached here and there to slices of ham, which 
had evaded Jack’s scrutiny, were easily accounted 
for as defunct sparks shot up from the fire be- 
low. 

Meanwhile a walking course had been staked 
off. Races of various kinds were to be engaged in 
during the evening, before the banquet. The track 
was not the most level in the world, and a big 
hole and several small ones were a few of its disad- 
vantages ; but, marked out as it was with its row 
of paper flags, each composed of one sheet of note 
paper, upon which an elegant design had been 
sketched in shoe-blacking, it made quite an at- 
tractive appearance. 

All at length was ready. “Aunt Rie” had 
sent down some mackerel and a custard pudding. 
The following bill of fare was placed by each 
plate, or where the plates would be when the 
guests brought them, to wit : 


82 


THE ANTI-B1LED SHIRT CLUB. 


BATCHELORS’ BOWER, JULY 17, 1876. 
SOUPS: 

CORNED BEEF. 

FISH: 

CLUB FISH, 

MACKEREL. 

BOILED: 

EGGS, 

CORNED BEEF. 

BROILED : 

HAM. 

COLD MEATS: 

CORNED BEEF, 

BOILED HAM. 

DESERT: 

INDIAN MUSH, Cold, ) , 

> With Milk or Molasses. 

COLD BOILED RICE, ) 

CUSTARD PUDDING. 

COFFEE. 

CHOCOLATE. 

Please report any inattention on the part of the waiters. 
Then, with a proud satisfaction, the A. B. S. C. 
awaited its guests. They came. They were de- 
lighted with the preparations that had been made, 
and displayed a curiosity, quite charming and 
feminine, but inconvenient, to go behind the 
scenes and investigate “ the pantry,” and were 
with great difficulty restrained. 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 


83 


The races arranged for duly came off. There 
were walking races, open to ladies only, in which 
almost all of the guests participated. That is, 
they all entered, but one by one the majority fell 
back, leaving victory in the hands of two or three 
of their more enduring companions. Will and 
Jack walked their mile each around the course, in 
a brevitj r of time very gratifying to themselves 
and all spectators. Uncle Charles, too, walked 
around the course, in a manner eliciting great ap- 
plause, though not with any astonishing speed. 

But the best of the entertainment was yet to 
come. The banquet, with all the gratification of 
curiosity and possible affording of merriment at 
the expense of the amateur cooks, was yet to be 
partaken of, and everybody was eager to begin. 

The guests were seated around the rude but 
picturesque table. Most of them, with a voracity 
and disregard of etiquette that cannot be too 
severely condemned, commenced at the first article 
on the bill of fare and called for every dish therein 
mentioned. The soup rapidly disappeared. “How 
delicious !” “ Please give me another plateful 

“ This is really good, boys,” and “ How nice the 
potato tastes \” were a few of the expressions of ap- 


84 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 


proval indulged in. Some fear of a scarcity of 
supply began to dawn upon the minds of three of 
the cooks as they saw the rapid consumption, and, 
alas ! the prodigal waste indulged in by their 
guests. Not so the Doctor. No fears disturbed 
him. While his body was all energy and agita- 
tion in his endeavor to properly wait upon the fair 
ones, his spirit was calm. He had faith in the 
holding-out powers of his mush. He knew he 
had an abundant supply. 

The four waiters were put to their utmost ef- 
forts, and were troubled not a little by the scarcity 
of dishes. Order followed order so rapidly that 
washing the plates was out of the question. Con- 
science forbidding them to waste all that was left 
on the plates, they made away with the choicer 
morsels themselves as they ran to “ the pantry ” 
to fulfil new orders. What could not thus be dis- 
posed of was hastily thrown down the bank, the 
plate was given a quick polish, brilliantly executed 
with the canvas in which the ham had been en- 
wrapped, and the new order was on its way to the 
table. 

Darkness had fallen by the time the dishes were 
washed in the river. The fire was kindled to a 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CL UB. 85 

bright blaze. Several of the party seated them- 
selves in front of it, with their backs against the 
tent. Others went off a little distance, and, seated 
upon rubber blankets, indulged in exercise mel- 
odious. Sweet strains of music rose in the dark- 
ness. The gentle breeze took up the melody, and 
wafted it to the listening ears beside the tent. 
With what raptures they listened this pen is pow- 
erless to tell. And this is what they heard : 

“ There was a man, lie had two sons, 

And these two boys were brothers ; 

Josephus was the name of one, 

Johunkus was the other’s.” 

The remarkable and touching history of these 
young gentlemen was briefly sketched in tuneful 
song, each two lines being given out in impressive 
tones by the Doctor. 

“And these two boys they had a coat, 

’Twas made on Easter Monday ; 

Josephus wore it all the week, 

Johunkus on a Sunday. 

“ And these two boys to the theatre did went 
Whenever they saw fit ; 

Johunkus sat in the galler — y, 

Josephus in the pit.” 


86 


THE ANTI-BILEE SHIRT CLUB . 


A commendably fraternal spirit actuated them 
in many of their pleasures : 

“ And these two boys they had a colt 
Went faster than the wind ; 

Johunkus rode it on before, 

Josephus on behind.” 

The song ceased. Others, differing somewhat 
in character, patriotic and otherwise, followed. 

Between the two flag-poles in front of the tent, 
from each of which floated, or, rather, against 
each of which flapped the banner of the free, 
several Chinese lanterns, which had done duty 
once already in distant Brooklyn, on the occasion 
of the celebration of the Centennial Fourth, were 
hung, and lent their not very powerful light to the 
scene. Occasionally a couple from either of the 
two parties strayed out in the surrounding gloom, 
beyond the range of light. Looking back, a 
pleasing picture was presented to their eyes. The 
firelight lit up the tent, and defined the figures 
against it, while the string of paper lanterns, 
although not very impressive and imposing in ap- 
pearance, added considerably to the scene. 

Jim undertook to furnish a pyrotechnic display 


THE ANT1-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 


87 


for the entertainment of the company. He made 
one of those cones of dampened powder known by 
the name “ Vesuvius but he had been too 
generous in the supply of the dampening fluid, 
and the exhibition was a lamentable failure. The 
“ firework ” was persuaded to burn only after being 
well dried in the fire. 

Soon the time came when the guests must de- 
part. They expected to be up late on the follow- 
ing night, so it would not do to stay up as late as 
they might have wished. The fire was reluctantly 
deserted, and left to die out at its own sweet will, 
while the club escorted their guests to their home, 
the Doctor, with swinging lantern, piloting the 
way. 

That day’s mail brought a letter of explanation 
and regret from Bob. Circumstances had turned 
up that prevented his taking his vacation at that 
time, and he was forced reluctantly to relinquish 
his hope of joining the club. 


88 


THE AN1LBILED SHIltT CLUB . 


CHAPTER X. 

ee Caw ! Caw ! Caw !” coming from every direc- 
tion, and evidently concentrating upon a point in 
the distance, whence came, somewhat fainter, the 
jabbering chorus of a multitude, startled Jack into 
immediate action. Jumping up, he was soon 
ready for the fray, and, seizing Jim’s gun, started 
out, determined to bring death and destruction to 
the congress of crows now assembling. But he 
didn’t. Long and patiently he followed the mi- 
gration of the wary and tuneful birds from tree to 
tree, they being, in his opinion, altogether too fas- 
tidious in selecting a meeting-place, and changing 
it altogether too often. The crows were more 
than a match for him, and he returned unsuccess- 
ful from his mission. 

But his warlike spirit was aroused, and some 
sacrifice to appease it must be made. He returned 
for reinforcements. He took Jim, and sallied 
forth again, bent upon slaughter. For some time 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 


89 


no victim appeared. His spirit chafed within him. 
Was he thus to be balked of his prey ? 

At length a victim was discovered half way up 
the trunk of a large tree. It appeared in the 
form of a chipmunk. At another time its insig- 
nificance would have been its salvation ; but it 
was the only creature possessing life that was to 
be seen, and, although unworthy Jack’s notice, 
this fact sealed its doom. 

But a difficulty had to be first overcome. The 
chipmunk was not far enough up the tree to be 
shot without danger of its total annihilation. To 
persuade it to remove to a more favorable position 
was now the duty of the hour. It evinced a dis- 
position to come down rather than go up, and cast 
longing glances downward. The hunters station- 
ed themselves at different sides of the tree, and by 
throwing sticks and bits of bark tried to frighten 
the agile creature up the tree. For some time 
they were unsuccessful ; for he could get around 
the tree much faster than they, and succeeded in 
being most of the time where they were not, and 
when they came around he wasn’t there. After 
much manoeuvering the chipmunk’s tactics were 
overcome, and he was driven up the tree. Then 


90 


THE ANTLBILED SHIRT CLUB. 


Jack moved off to firing range, leaving Jim, with 
a handful of chips, charged to keep the animal 
up. But Jim was unfaithful to the trust, and 
th§ chipmunk, slipping down the tree, scampered 
off, much to Jack’s disgust. 

Another invitation was received from the guests 
of yesterday. It was an invitation to participate 
in a “ straw ride ” to the “ Lone Pine,” a tree 
which stood alone upon a young mountain some 
few miles away. The invitation was accepted in 
the following epistle : 

“ Bachelors’ Bower, July 18, 1876. 

“The Bachelors, in council assembled, have 
unanimously agreed to answer the ‘Maidens’ 
prayer,’ and cheerfully accept the invitation to 
visit the Pine, which is a synonym of their several 
conditions. 

“ To the Maidenly Maidens of Maiden Lane.” 

A good part of the warm, drowsy, lazy after- 
noon was passed in the store, which was likewise 
the Bonny Eagle post-office. Perched upon bar- 
rels, or stretched upon bags of meal, the time was 
profitably employed by the members of the club 
in the perpetration of wretched jokes, practical 
and very unpractical, at the expense of each other 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CL UB. 91 

and the good-natured, but severe-of-countenance 
postmaster and general store-keeper. 

“ Got any chewing-gum, Mr. Hatch ?” queried 
Jack. 

Mr. Hatch did not see in this question a bril- 
liant prospect of prosperous trade. It failed to 
move him from his chair, tilted back against the 
counter beside the open door. 

“ Guess so. You can go behind and see.” 

Jack went behind the counter, and his search 
was crowned with success. He selected several 
sticks. 

“ Give me the change out of this, Mr. Hatch.” 

u Look here, Jack. You sold that gum, I didn’t ; 
and if you want any change you can just go to 
the drawer and take it yourself ; Fm not a-going 
to get up and get it for you.” 

This unusual confidence in himself for a mo- 
ment staggered Jack ; but only for a moment ; he 
quickly recovered, and helped himself to the re- 
quisite amount of big pennies. 

In coming to the store a phenomenon had been 
observed. It took the shape of a tall young man 
in a suit of black and stove-pipe hat of the same 
shade, and was first discovered, near the store, 


92 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 


silk umbrella spread over its head, walking slowly 
along the road, with eyes bent down upon the 
broad page of a copy of the “New York Tribune.” 
This was its first appearance to the club, but it 
was destined not to be the last. 

As the A. B. S. C., towards evening, was leav- 
ing the tent, intent upon attiring themselves, in 
the house of Uncle Charles, in their chosen cos- 
tumes for the “ Bal-Masque,” the figure was dis- 
covered approaching ; this time minus the um- 
brella and newspaper, but plus a fishing-pole, 
which it earned in its case under its arm. The 
club passed the figure some distance from the tent, 
and looked back to watch its actions. Yes, it 
bent its steps directly towards the tent, which was 
its evident destination. In fact, even as they 
watched it, they saw it stand before the opening 
of the tent and look within. This aroused no 
fears or suspicions in their minds, but it quickened 
the recollection of two of them. 

“ I left the saw and the axe in the grass. Wait 
a minute, boys, and I'll put them in the tent !” 
shouted Jack, and started off on a run. 

“ And I forgot the lantern !” and the Doctor 
raced after him. 


THE ANTIBILED SHIRT CLUB. 


93 


The others stood and awaited the result. Be- 
fore J ack and the Doctor had reached the tent, 
the figure had left it, and passed them on the re- 
turn. Coming up to Will and Jim, it stopped. 

u I came down to gratify my curiosity, gentle- 
men. I have camped out myself, and I wished to 
see your tent. Some of you have camped before ?” 

His words had a conciliatory and flattering ef- 
fect. Here was a veteran camper, and he had 
recognized in their arrangements evidences of a 
like experience and absence of “ greenness.” Jack 
and the Doctor joined tho party, and in pleasant 
social converse concerning camping experiences, 
the five walked up the island to the road, where 
the club parted from their companion. 

Much time and labor was spent by the four in 
transforming themselves from plain members of a 
camping party into the semblances of the several 
celebrated domestic and foreign characters they 
were to assume, and after all their labor and inge- 
nuity had been exhausted, their likeness to the per- 
sonages they represented was, with one exception, 
rather indistinguishable. The Doctor was Hamlet 
— such a Hamlet as this degenerate age never be- 
held. He introduced an individuality into his repre- 


94 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 


sentation of the character that rendered it distinct 
from any ever attempted, before or since. Will was 
Hamlet’s ghost — not that of that gentleman’s par- 
ent — and, the better to act out his part through the 
evening, inasmuch as in him the power lay, dog- 
ged Hamlet’s every step. If to Hamlet spirit was 
wanting, it was no fault of Will’s. Jack’s strong- 
ly-built frame was a good foundation for the con- 
struction of a very successful imitation of the per- 
sonal appearance of a lady of somewhat masculine 
form and manner, who resided not a thousand 
miles from Bonny Eagle. He was the exception 
to the rule as to the merit of the several personifi- 
cations, and was a pronounced and overwhelming 
success. Jim was supposed to represent a speci- 
men of the genus “ Girl of the Period.” 

The hour was fashionably late when these four 
figures reached the ball-room. The ladies were in- 
dignant. They had sat for over an hour behind 
their suffocating masks, and no gentlemen had ap- 
peared. They resolved to punish the delinquents, 
and flounced off and unmasked, vowing they would 
not reassume their costumes. But they changed 
their minds when the sound of their guests com- 
ing up the path from the road was heard, and 


THE AHT1-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 


95 


when the gentlemen entered the door sounds of 
hurried preparation came from rooms above and 
around. 

On the sofa sat an individual in the character 
of an American gentleman. This individual bore 
a striking resemblance to him of the fishing-pole 
and umbrella — a resemblance that was convincing 
of his identity with that personage. 

The ladies entered the room. There was a 
Topsy, and a duplicate of the same ; one or two 
curiously attired females, whose exact character 
could not be ascertained, even by the most skillful 
after-questioning of the “ Special and a won- 
drous figure that was afterwards discovered to be 
compounded of certain proportions of female hu- 
manity and broom-stick. 

Hamlet danced with the Topsy in blue. His 
spirit, after trying unsuccessfully to follow its 
owner’s body around the room, deserted him, and 
was soon waltzing around with one of the conun- 
drum figures. The stout lady was very unfemi- 
nine in her taste, and invariably selected compan- 
ions of her own sex for the dance, nor waiting for 
any invitation from the opposite sex, and danced 
successively with the Topsy in red, the broom 


96 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 


combination, and every one else she could get 
bold of. 

For some time tbe dancing was kept up, almost 
every one present participating in the amusement, 
the American gentleman being one of the excep- 
tions. 

The American gentleman was sorely puzzled. 
Each feminine figure recognized him, and seemed 
to express her gratification at meeting him ; but 
he could distinguish none of them. They bowed ; 
they shook him by the hand. Hamlet, Ghost, et 
al, wondered who he was. Every one seemed to 
know him but themselves. Time, that solves 
almost all riddles, solved this mystery. 

The time came to unmask. The four young 
men stood in their natural faces, and to each in 
turn the fair young hostess introduced — the Rev. 
Mr. John. 

That night, as they walked home with him, 
and remembered the incident of the afternoon at 
the camp, they meditated ; and when he left them 
at the island their meditations found expression. 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 


97 


CHAPTER XI. 

It was after one o’clock when the camp was 
reached, and they were to he ready to start for 
the “Lone Pine” at six. So no time was lost in 
getting to bed, the unfortunate youth whose fate 
it was to arise an hour before the others to get 
breakfast tumbling into his place upon the two or 
three hemlock twigs that made up his share of the 
scanty bed, and seeking slumber with even more 
alacrity than the rest. 

This time the ladies’ feelings were respected, 
and the members of the club presented themselves 
at a few minutes past six. They found the ladies 
almost ready, having been up and preparing since 
four o’clock. The hay-rick had not yet appeared. 
Jack and Jim went up to the farmer’s house to 
hurry matters, and arrived just as the horses were 
being harnessed. The hay-rick was run into the 
barn, and a generous supply of hay spread 
over its floor by Jack and Jim, who had deter- 
mined to have as easy a ride as possible. The 


98 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB . 


Doctor and Will, loaded down with numerous 
cans and baskets, convoyed the ladies, who were 
too impatient to wait, up to the farmer's house. 

Everything was soon ready. The varied freight 
of *the excursionists and their provisions were 
packed in the hay, the horses were whipped up, 
and, in much laughter and merriment, the party 
rattled gayly off. 

The sun came out in all its strength. The 
more gallant of the gentlemen alighted and cut 
branches to shield the faces of their fair compan- 
ions. These were held aloft or fastened to the 
sides of the hay-rick, which, with its merry load 
of youth, sitting or standing in the hay, presented 
a goodly appearance as it drove up to its destina- 
tion. Well shaken, but none the worse, and in 
the best of spirits, the party alighted, gathered up 
the baskets, and began the upward march. The 
bars entering into a field on the side of the small 
mountain were let down and passed through. 
Half way up this field the party paused for breath. 
Looking back, a small boy was seen approaching 
the bars from a house a little way down the road. 
The small boy reached the bars. He paused and 
yelled something up the hill. Was he charging 


THE ANTI-B 1 LED SHIRT CLUB. 99 

them with trespass, and did he mean to eject the 
party ? They could not distinguish his words, hut 
his attitude was not a friendly one. They saw in 
him an enemy, and awaited his advance, deter- 
mined to resist to the last man or woman, rather 
than be turned out to go the roundabout way by 
the road. 

But tlie small hoy had no belligerent intent, or 
else his heart failed him when he saw the strength 
of the invaders. He advanced no farther, hut 
contented himself with yelling a speech up at the 
trespassers, not a word of which they heard. 
Then he put up the bars, something they had 
forgotten to do, and retreated in good order, with- 
out loss. 

The top of the first hill reached, another pause 
was made. It was thought well to obtain a sup- 
ply of water before going any farther, as none was 
to be got on the summit. They had nothing but 
one small pail to get it in ; all the other cans and 
pails were full. But water was likely to be in 
more demand than cold coffee ; so a can of that 
beverage was emptied, the coffee being conscien- 
tiously swallowed to prevent its waste. 

The nearest place from which water could be 


100 TEE anti-biled shirt club , 

expected to be obtained was the citadel into which 
the enemy had retreated. But water must be had 
at whatever risk, and an expedition was fitted out 
against the stronghold of the small boy. The ex- 
pedition charged rapidly down the field, through 
the bars, and down the road upon the pump 
planted at one side of the fortress, which was cap- 
tured without resistance, no enemy appearing. 
But as the expedition was about to return with 
pails full of the captured fluid, the commander-in- 
chief of the enemy appeared. She proposed a 
peace, the only condition of which was that the 
bars should be put up securely, to the effectual 
exclusion of any bovine would-be trespasser, each 
and every time the said bars should be made use 
of by any one of the party. 

The small boy made his appearance at the open 
door beside his commander, ready to uphold her 
in her demands if need be. But the condition of 
peace was a reasonable one, and the articles were 
at once signed in the presence and much to the 
satisfaction of the small boy, who parted from his 
late enemies in a very amicable mood. 

Another climb, and the goal was reached. Tho 
Lone Pine in all its solitary glory stood before 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB . 


101 


them. A first look was rather disappointing. 
The pine did not present a very imposing appear- 
ance. Much taller and greater trees were to be 
seen any day, and without such a journey and 
climb. But the fact that it stood alone, and stood 
too in a very indifferent soil ; that it had stood 
and thrived in its rocky bed for many years ; and 
that it had been indifferent to and successfully re- 
sisted the storms of winter after winter lent inter- 
est to it in the eyes of the pilgrims. One bare, 
branchless side showed where the blasts had been 
most frequent and powerful ; but the other ^side, 
where the hardy branches had grown out and 
flourished, showed that the vitality of the tree 
was not seriously affected. 

Quite an extended view was afforded by their 
position, and with much interest the several mem- 
bers of the party pointed out divers spots in the 
distance, as the house, the barn, the grove behind 
the house, the river, etc. A part of the river was 
clearly distinguishable afar off, having that high- 
in-the-air look that water in the distance generally 
has. The several roads, going here and there and 
everywhere, and getting lost in the woods for some 
time, and then finding their way out again in some 


102 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 


unexpected place, were marked out before them. 
The buildings, pointed out with much proud sat- 
isfaction by their driver an hour or so before, as 
those upon his new farm, were plainly in sight, 
with the road by which they had passed them. 

The solitary pine afforded but little shade from 
the burning heat of the sun, but the cooling 
breeze that fanned the mountain prevented the 
full effect of the sun upon face and neck being 
felt as its work was being accomplished. 

Some of the party wandered about, the Doctor, 
geologically inclined, chipping off specimens of the 
rock at the foot of the tree, and discoursing learn- 
edly concerning its class, formation, etc., to all 
whom he could induce to listen ; others lay, half 
and more than half asleep, in the warm sun and 
the cooling breeze. 

The lunch was eaten in the shade of a tree of 
greater breadth than the pine. It called from 
wandering the absent ones, and made wide awake 
the sleepers, and was altogether a scene of cheer- 
ful, active industry. Everybody knows the com- 
bination of food devoured by otherwise civilized 
creatures upon such pic-nicing occasions. The 
cover of a milk can filled with milk in one hand, 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 


103 


a pickle in the other, the torn fragments of a sand- 
wich before him, side by side with two or three 
slices of cake of divers character and make, with 
a handful of pie within convenient reach, and the 
average pic-nic-er is perfectly happy, and devours 
indiscriminatingly and impartially pickle and pie, 
cake, sandwich, etc., with much fun-making and 
laughter. Our party was no exceptional one, and 
so, for a full and complete account of all the pro- 
ceedings of the lunch upon the mount of the Lone 
Pine, see the memory of any ex-pic-nic-er. 

The day was passed by most of the party in 
wandering about the neighboring woods, picking 
blueberries and gathering running-pine, admiring 
the while the beauties of nature as displayed to 
the outward eye. One or two sought some se- 
questered, shady nook, and to the inward eye of 
the imagination found delight in slumber. 

The thoroughness of the sun’s morning work 
began to appear in stiff and blistered skin upon 
face and neck. Miss Susan decided to visit some 
friends who resided at the foot of the mountain, 
on the other side, and invited every one to accom- 
pany her. The descent was made, and soon the 
house was reached, the strangers duly introduced, 


104 


THE ANTI-BILEB SHIRT CLUB. 


and the four sunburned, sleepy, and generally in- 
teresting countenances of the members of the A. 
B. S. C. arranged in a row along one side of the 
room, the owners of the faces being in no very 
social condition of mind. 

The visit over, the summit was regained, after 
many pauses in the woods to enable the ladies to 
gather coveted moss and ferns. Then, tired out, 
they awaited the appearance of the hay-rick in 
the road below. The time for its appearance 
came and went. The sun went down in splendor, 
and darkness was coming on. Still it did not ar- 
rive. Consolation was sought and found in the 
yet unemptied baskets. Even the time thus 
spent failed to produce the desired vehicle. 

The waiting ground was transferred to the road, 
the bars being carefully put up, according to con- 
tract. No wagon of any description was to be 
seen. The air became chilly as the night came 
on. Sitting still became uncomfortable, and, more- 
over, swarms of mosquitoes came out and pounced 
upon their unexpected, but all the more welcome 
prey. So motion was in order, likewise # smoking 
by such as indulged in the weed. Walking 
matches up and down the road were instituted, 


K THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 105 

and several went about among the bushes by the 
roadside, as long as there was light to see, gather- 
ing such berries as had escaped the fingers of 
former pickers. But these means of passing away 
the time were insufficient. Miss Susan and an- 
other of the ladies marched down to the residence 
of the small boy, determined to claim acquaint- 
ance with his mother, whom Miss Susan had met 
some years before. The gates of the citadel 
opened to them, and they were received with hos- 
pitality. The rest of the party soon followed their 
example, and moved down in solid ranks upon the 
house. The ladies went within, and the gentle- 
men deployed in front of the house. Now and 
then a couple was sent out on scouting duty, and 
at last one returned and reported the hay- rick ap- 
proaching. It drove up, and its load was soon in. 

Jack grew generous and friendly. He had left 
his pocket-knife at the foot of the pine. Of this 
fact he informed the small boy, and also stated 
that he freely bestowed it upon him — the said 
small boy — if he could find it. 

The spirits of the party rose now that the 
homeward journey was begun, and the ride home 
was a jolly one, notwithstanding the speed at 


106 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 


which the horses were driven and the scarcity of 
hay to break the jolting. The hay-rick nad been 
In use during the day, and at night the driver had 
put in, perhaps, as much hay as he himself would 
have desired, but not as much as some of his 
charge would have had him put in. This was 
especially the sentiment of those whose position 
was immediately above the hind wheels. Bat no 
murmuring came from them, and they were loud- 
est in song and laughter. 

The road led past a village store. The sound 
of singing, amid the rattle of wheels, announced 
their approach. Several young men came out of 
the store to see the sight, and, as the loaded 
wagon swung around the bend, gave “ three cheers 
for the gypsies !” 

The road was scarcely distinguishable for the 
darkness, but that did not diminish the Jiorses’ 
speed. They were going home, and needed little 
urging. 

Tired and sleepy, the party alighted in front 
of the house. No light shone out from within 
to welcome them. Sarah, who had been left 
in charge, had been afraid to stay alone in the 
house as night came on, and had fled to Uncle 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CL UB. 107 


Charles’s. A council was held to devise ways and 
means to effect an entrance. It was suggested 
that Sarah and the key be sent for ; but the walk 
was long, and every one was tired, and no one was 
anxious for the undertaking, although Will and 
the Doctor volunteered to sacrifice themselves. 

A way was found at last to enter, which was 
pleasantly suggestive of the security of the house 
against wandering tramps or other individuals to 
whom illegitimate entrance might be supposed to 
be desirable. Jack mounted the roof of the porch, 
over the side door, and then, by the exercise of a 
little agility, managed to climb into one of the 
second-story windows that never was fastened. 
He groped his way down stairs, and soon appeared 
at the open door. 

It was a tired, unsocial, subdued and silent 
procession that filed down to the camp that night, 
and no wakeful native was moved to wrath at any 
noisy demonstration by “them fellows down on 
the island.” 


108 THE anti-biled shirt cl ub . 


CHAPTER XII. 

No one arose in tlie tent the next morning until 
he was compelled to by the heat, hut all slept as 
long as sleep was possible. Breakfast had to he 
eaten away from the table, upon which the sun’s 
rays were beating, and upon which the “ crockery ” 
was heated to an uncomfortable degree, as it is 
the nature of tinware to become under such cir- 
cumstances. 

After breakfast every man busied himself at his 
own sweet will. No plans for the day were made. 
Will betook himself to his French, lying in the 
shade of a tree. The Doctor studied a little, 
wrote a few letters home and a few dozen pages 
of “ special correspondence,” and then wandered 
off, no man knoweth where. Jack disappeared. 
Jim devoted himself to a novel. Leaving his 
book for a moment in the grass, he made the dis- 
covery of a literary cow. When he came upon 
her she was busy with his book. She didn’t ap- 
pear to read it, in the proper sense of the word, 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT GL UB. 109 


hut when she was persuaded to desist and give it 
up, the book, or at least its cover, bore unmis- 
takable signs of having been “ skimmed/' 

A second storm visited the camp during the 
afternoon. It began with violent wind. The 
sides of the tent were not fastened, hut simply 
hung down by their own weight. To secure them 
was the first thought of the Doctor, who generally 
assumed command by general consent when any 
emergency threatening the safety of the tent arose. 
Large stones were hurriedly gathered, the very 
hearth-stones being torn from the fireplace. 
These were laid upon the edges of the canvas, and 
the on-coming storm was defied. The wind came 
and struck the tent, part of its force passing, 
within. The stones rolled off at the first blast, 
the tent bulged up like a partially inflated balloon, 
and the four far-sighted inhabitants were soon 
tugging away at the swaying canvas, which they 
finally secured and fastened down in a more effec- 
tual manner. The rain came on fiercely, but was 
soon over. Again the tent proved tight and se- 
cure, and saved all within it dry. 

The storm cleared away as rapidly as it came. 
Soon not a cloud was to be seen. It was about 


110 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 


sunset. The island lay so low, comparatively, 
that the sun disappeared from view long before it 
had sunk from the sight of those upon the higher 
ground at “ the house/’ From the high hill upon 
which it stood a glorious sunset was almost always 
to be seen, as the sun slowly disappeared behind 
the western mountains. But at the camp, low 
down and shut in on all sides, no such sight was 
ever seen ; and the fading away of daylight before 
the advancing dusk was all that told of the scene 
displayed to more fortunate eyes. But this time 
some effect of the sunset was seen from the tent 
door. The moist air was touched and tinted, and 
every opening between the trees was bathed in 
pale golden light. 

The evening cook, who happened to be the Doc- 
tor, set about preparing the meal. No one envied 
him his task of kindling a fire, for, though every- 
thing in sight wore a brilliant hue, the ground was 
still uncomfortably damp, and there was no wood 
near quite free from moisture. Jack started off 
through the wet for milk and water, congratulat- 
ing himself that his was the easier task of the 
evening. The other two lounged about, awaiting 
the cooking of their supper. They expected the 


THE ANT1-BILEB SHIRT CLUB. 


Ill 


poor cook was to have a pleasant hunt for dry- 
wood to kindle his fire, but not for a moment 
thought of giving up their coffee. That individual 
went about his duties, serenely- preparing his 
fireplace, putting in place the stones torn from 
its bed, filling his coffee-pot, and getting ready his 
pail of mush to boil. Then he moved off and en- 
tered the tent, returning with an armful of dry 
wood, which he threw down by the fireplace, 
peace and satisfaction beaming in his countenance. 
The Doctor had camped before ; he remembered 
that his was the evening meal, and he was provi- 
dent. 


112 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB , 


CHAPTEK XIII. 

The last day of camping came. It was resolved 
to celebrate the event, and take leave of the camp 
in a grand demonstration and extensive candy- 
pull in the evening. A new fireplace was built, 
in about the centre of the opening in which the 
tent stood. Jack and Jim were appointed a com- 
mittee of two to cut wood, and faithfully per- 
formed their tasks, Jack chopping and Jim look- 
ing on, showing as the fruit of their labors, when 
Will and the Doctor returned from their expedi- 
tion to Moderation, to procure various entertain- 
ment that the camp did not afford, a huge pile of 
wood, seemingly enough to last all day and night, 
but not, as it proved, more than was required. 

The molasses jug had been refilled. The 
lemons, nuts, etc., from Moderation, were stowed 
away in the storage trunk. The old iron pot, 
hero of soup and boiled ham, which had stood un- 
cleaned since its use in preparing that dinner, and 
still bearing marks of service in clinging threads 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 


113 


of beef and incrusting rice, was taken down to the 
river and scoured with sand, abundance of which 
the bank provided ; but which abundance was 
only discovered after Will and Jim, from bathing 
homeward bound, had borne laboriously from the 
farthest point of the island a towel full of the 
white sand, which they had discovered and tri- 
umphantly seized as invaluable, carefully scraping 
it up again each time the traitorous towel proved 
unfaithful and let its load drop and mingle with 
dust and leaves. 

By noon all was prepared. The club were to 
pic-nic with their fair friends in the grove behind 
the house, and thitherward marched. The woody 
hill was climbed, the pic-nicing place was reached, 
and the baskets were placed upon the rude and 
shaky table of boards, mended and reconstructed 
for the occasion. The generous repast was spread, 
and soon every one was busily engaged. Jim ate 
as much and as long as his conscience permitted, 
and still was unsatisfied. His heart still went out 
toward the cake that lay in slices at the opposite 
side of the table. He had already partaken of it 
two or three times, but he yearned to do so again. 
But he wished to do so in private, and free from 


114 


THE ANTI-B1LED SHIRT CLUB. 


critical notice of his kind. He disappeared. He 
was no more to be seen in the region of sand- 
wiches, and where coffee and milk were dealt out 
he was not. Slice by slice the cake on the farther 
side of the table diminished, and yet there was no 
one near it. It so happened that J ack had men- 
tally-taken this same cake under his own especial 
protection, and to his watchful eye its diminution 
soon became manifest. He ceased his busy occu- 
pation, and fixed his eye steadfastly upon the cake. 
The intensity of his feeling, displayed only in 
the earnest expression of his face and the deep 
breathing with which his manly bosom swelled as 
he gazed, we will not pause to describe. He had 
not long to watch. A mass of badly mussed light 
hair arose slowly above the edge of the table. A 
forehead and a pair of eyes, that glanced cautious- 
ly around but failed to notice Jack’s watchful eye, 
followed. Soon a mouth appeared. It rested for 
a moment level with the table’s edge; a hand 
reached toward the cake, a slice of which was 
slowly drawn towards the open mouth and dis- 
appeared within it ; and Jack could stand no 
more. He jumped up with a yell that caused 
the head to disappear immediately, and hauled 


THE ANT1-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 115 

from beneath the table the form of the missing 
Jim. 

f Through the woods and out upon the rolling 
fields skirted by them, now along the edge in the 
shade of the trees, and now over the mown grass 
out in the warm sun, the party wandered until 
time to start for the camp. Borne started for the 
island direct ; others determined to follow the 
winding path of the “ Gulf Stream.” They fol- 
lowed along its course through the deep ravine, 
crossing the narrow stream a dozen times or more 
where it bent and turned, here crossing on some 
fallen tree that had transformed itself into a prim- 
itive but substantial bridge, there easily jump- 
ing from bank to bank. They followed the stream 
almost to its mouth, and then made an attempt to 
gain the road crossed by it before it reached the 
river. They climbed the steep bank of the ravine 
and found themselves in a trackless piece of woods, 
overgrown with bushes just high enough to ab- 
stract the vision. The road lay below. They be- 
gan the steep descent in the direction they sup- 
posed it lay. They could not see before them, but 
worked their way slowly and cautiously down 
through the bushes. Soon they reached the hot- 


116 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CL UB. 


tom, and found themselves again in the ravine, at 
a point a little farther down than the place they 
had left. Another attempt was made with better 
success, and the road was gained. 

At “ Bunce’s ” a long pause was made. Seated 
upon the huge rocks, they watched the rushing 
water with its burden of logs tumbling over the 
rocks and churning itself into foam in the rapids 
below, until the sinking sun warned them that it 
was time to start for the camp. 

The tree-clad rocky shore of the island just 
across was within easy distance ; but they had no 
means of reaching it. They knew that the camp 
was almost straight across, on the other side of 
the island, but their knowledge did not help them ; 
nor did it save them the long walk around by the 
road and bridge. 

When they came out upon the opening by the 
tent, preparations had already commenced. The 
fire was burning brightly. Above hung the big 
black pot, and within it the molasses was bub- 
bling gayly, stirred by a long succession of volun- 
teer cooks. 

Becca, upon her arrival, was at once put in com- 
mand by Will, as the highest candy authority pres- 


THE ANTLBILEB SHIRT CLUB. 


117 


ent, and took her place by the fire, the deposed 
volunteers falling respectfully behind. One or two 
she permitted to assist in stirring, which flattering 
honor was gratefully received. 

At length she pronounced the molasses suffi- 
ciently boiled, and at her command the pot was 
swung off the hot fire. She called for a glass of 
water ; some was brought her in a tin cup. She 
dropped a spoonful of the boiling stuff into the 
cup, and, dipping it out in a partially solidified 
state, pronounced it good, the club standing by 
and regarding her with respectful admiration. 
The boiling molasses was emptied into tin plates, 
and the pot, by the advice of more experienced 
cooks than the members of the club, was filled 
with water and again hung over the fire, instead 
of being at once put out of the way, as its fate 
would otherwise have been. 

The molasses was soon cool enough to work, 
and was at once put through the process of “ pull- 
ing/ 7 coming out after the same as beautiful and 
fairly white candy. To be sure evidences of the 
presence of substances in some slight degree 
foreign to the nature of molasses were now and 
then discovered. Traces of charcoal, in darkly- 


1 IS THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CL UB. 

shaded lines, occasionally appeared, and, diligently 
followed up, almost invariably led to the discov- 
ery of a minute coal-bed, which but for their be- 
traying fingers might never have been discovered 
and opened to the light of day. But what of 
that ? And what if a few of these unworked 
mines were not discovered in time to prevent their 
loss to the outer world ? They were only char- 
coal, and the loss was small. Notwithstanding 
such little drawbacks as these discoveries might be 
considered by some to be, the candy was a great 
success, and was so unanimously pronounced. 

A hasty and fragmentary meal was soon par- 
taken of. While light lasted, sharp-shooting and 
shooting far from sharp were in order. Many 
were the bullets uncomplainingly received into its 
broad front by the much-enduring ex-pulpit ; 
and when the ammunition for Jack’s rifle was ex- 
hausted and recourse was had to Jim’s formidable 
weapon, the havoc wrought was fearful to behold. 
Each fair guest of the club in turn discharged the 
piece, after a careful loading of the same by means 
of the abbreviated ramrod, and two or three of the 
more warlike of their number repeated the deed 
again and again. 


THE ANTI-BILEB SHIRT CLUB. 


119 


Darkness came on, and the heavy dew began to 
fall. Wood was heaped upon the fire, which 
burst into a bright and cheerful blaze. The rub- 
ber blankets were brought out and arranged in a 
circle around the fire, and all sat down to enjoy 
these last hours of the camp. Quickly the hours 
flew by. Nuts, candy, and other things to glad- 
den the inward man passed around. All ate and 
laughed, and talked and ate ; told stories and 
tried to crack jokes ; sang and indulged in home- 
made conundrums ; and spent the time generally 
in such amusements as, under certain circum- 
stances, are highly enjoyable, but which, described 
and retailed at second-hand, are very tame and 
uninteresting. 

It was decided that, precisely at midnight, a 
paper should be drawn up, signed and buried in 
the now old and feeble coffee-pot beside the last 
camp-fire. The hole was dug; the paper was 
written and passed around for signature. It was 
brief, but contained all the information in regard 
to the club that will ever be needed or desired by 
the fortunate discoverer who, ages hence, shall 
bring the old coffee-pot again to the light of day. 
It read as follows : 


120 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB . 


Bonny Eagle, July 21, 1876. 


The A. B. S. C. : 


Will, aged 24, 
Jim, “ 21, 

John, “ 20, 

Jack, “ 19, 


of Brooklyn, New York, camped here from July 10. 

We bury this coffee-pot on the last night of our camp, 
in the presence of the following witnesses : 


Bie, 

Hattie, 

Gracie. 


Sue, 

Becca, 

Dollie, 


This document was about to be enclosed within 
the coffee-pot, preparatory to consigning it to the 
earth, when Gracie interposed with an urgent re- 
quest for the handle of the coffee-pot. 

“ I want something from this camp ; some- 
thing to keep ; something that has been used.” 

And nothing to her mind so well met this re- 
quirement, and was so desirable a memento as the 
handle. 

After long and patient labor the handle was 
wrenched from its position, and presented to its 
admirer, who received it with joy and thankful- 
ness. Then the impressive ceremony was per- 
formed. The paper, carefully enwrapped in many 


THE ANTI-BILED SHIRT CLUB. 


121 


protecting folds, was placed in tlie coffee-pot, the 
lid was placed over, and the coffee-pot, bottom 
up, was thrust into the hole. Then every one in 
turn took up a handful of earth and cast it in. 
The sod was replaced, and all marks of a disturb- 
ance of the soil, as far as possible, removed. 

The last stick was thrown on, the fire was stir- 
red into a bright blaze, and then was left to burn 
itself out. As they passed out from the circle of 
light into the surrounding darkness, each one 
looked back. 

The fire was burning brightly, casting its 
cheerful light for some distance around it, and 
illuminating the woods near by ; and yet it had a 
solitary and deserted appearance, suggestive of the 
appearance of the camp-ground when, on the mor- 
row, the white tent, now standing a little way off 
and showing through the darkness, should be 
taken down, and the camp life of the A. B. S. C. 
be at an 


End. 

































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It is fub of common sense Valuable for its facts, its thoughts and its 

suggestions.— Troy Daily Whig. 

is written in an interesting and popular style and contains much useful in- 
formation.— Oakland. Cal., Daily News. 

The subject of the high valuation of gold and silver currency is fully dis- 
cussed, and otters some new ideas wort hy the attention of those interested in 
monetary affairs . — Toledo Commercial. 

The author isa merchant who has extensively studied the currency problem. 

His hits are often sharp and incisive Mr. Pilon would provide ample 

banking facilities for every city, town and village, with both stock and laud 
security.— Cincinnati Daily Star. 

Discussing the currency question in an original, forcible and enter- 
taining style. The author has brought together a great amount of varied 

information upon the whole subject of money Those interested will find 

unquestioned ability in the author’s handling of it .—Baltimore Methodist 
Protestant. 


The Manuscript Manual : 

IIow to Prepare Manuscripts for the Press— practical 
and to the point. Paper, 26 pp., 8vo. Price 10 cents. 

A most useful little companion to the young writerand editor .— The South , 
New York. 

Gives excellent hints to intending writers .— Cleveland Evan. Messenger 


THE AUTHORS’ PUBLISHING CO.’S NEW BOOKS. 


ESTHETIC THOUGHT. 

Irene; or, Beach-Broken Billows: 

A Story. By Mrs. B. F. Baer, author of “ Lena’s 
Marriage,” “The Match-Girl of New York,” “Little 
Bare-Foot,” etc., etc. The second volume of the Inter- 
national Prize Series. Second Edition. Cloth extra , 
fine thick paper. Lmo. . . . Price $1 00. 

Natural, honest and delicate. — New York Herald. 
Charming and thoughtful. — Poughkeepsie Eagle. 

Depicted in strong terms. — Baptist Union , New York. 
Eminently pleasing and profitable. — Christian Era, Boston. 
A fascinating volume. — Georgia Musical Eclectic Magazine. 
Characters and plot fresh and original. — Bridgeport News. 
With freshness, clearness, and vigor. — Neb. Watchman. 
Delightful book. — Saturday Review , Louisville , Ky. 

Lays open a whole network of the tender and emotional. — 
Williamsport (Pa.) Daily Register. 

The unity is well preserved, the characters maintaining that 
probability so essential in the higher forms of fiction. — Balti- 
moie Methodist Protestant. 

There is a peculiar charm in the reading of this book, which 
every one who peruses it must feel. It is very like to that 
which is inspired in reading any of Hawthorne’s romances. — 
Hartford Religious Herald. 

Wild Flowers: 

Poems. By Charles W. IIubneu, author of 
“Souvenirs of Luther.” Elegantly printed on fine 
tinted paper, with portrait of the Author, imitation 
morocco and beveled edges, 196 pp., 12 mo. Just ready , 
Price $i.oo. The same, gilt top, beveled edges, $1.25 

As a poet Mr. IIubneu is conservative— always tender and delicate, never 
turbid or enatic. lie evinces a strong love of nature and high spirituality, 
and brings us, from the humblest places and in the humblest guises, beauties 
of the heart, the life, the universe, ami, while placing them before our vision, 
has glorihed them and shown that within them of whose existence we had 
never dreamed. 


Her Waiting Heart: 


A Novel. By Lou Capsadell, author of “ Hallow 
E’en.” Cloth extra, 192 pp., 12mo. Just ready. $1 00. 

A story of New York-drawn from the familiar phases of life, which, under 
the calmest surfaces, cover the greatest depths. Charming skill is shown in 
the naturalness of characterization, development of plot and narrative 
strength of action and delicacy of thought. 


THE AUTHORS’ PUBLISHING CO.’S NEW BOOKS. 7 


Shadowed Perils: 

A Novel. By M. A. Avery, author of “ The Loyal 
Bride,” etc. English cloth, 260 pp., 12mo, . . . $1 25 

The story is bold and dramatic in action, graceful in narrative, strong in characteriza- 
tion, intense in interest, sweet and pure in tone, and is marked by keen sympathy with 
the lowly and oppressed. 

Egypt Ennis; or, Prisons Without Walls; 

A Novel. By Kelsic Etheridge. Paper, 97 pp., 
8vo., Price, 25 cents. 

Has the curiosity-exciting tendency.— Boston Beacon. 

The interest grows and retains attention to the end N. O. Picayune. 

Short, sententious, marrowy, and spiced with episodes. Has a warm southern aroma 
of orange and magnolia blossoms. — Baltimore Meth. Prot. 

Of rare beauty and power in its vivid, life-like picturing of men and places 

Through such artistic touches of skill and strength we are wafted in thought as we fol- 
low the hero and heroine through the mazes of the old, old story .—Ladies' Pearl, SI. Louis. 

The Travelers’ Grab-Bag; or, the Heart of a Quiet Hour: 

A Hand-book for utilizing fragments of leisure in railroad 
trains, steamboats, way stations and easy chairs. Edited 
by An Old Traveler. . . . Paper, 100 pp., 

8vo. Price, 25 cents. 

Full of spice and fun.— Baltimore Meth. Prot. 

No traveler should be without it. — N. F. Forest and Stream. 

Teeming with rollicking humor and a kind of satire that will be enjoyable .— Pittsburgh 
Commercial. 


The Anti-Biled Shirt Club: 

Clear type, heavy tinted paper, 12mo, . . 35 cents. 

The curious and ludicrous experiences of a party of gentlemen who 
sought happiness in the forests of Maine ; graphically told with a naive 
humor and delicate satire; fresh and spicy. 


3 THE AUTHORS’ PUBLISHING CO.’S NEW BOOKS. 


Women’s Secrets; or, How to be Beautiful: 

Translated and Edited from the Persian and French, with 
additions from the best English authorities. By Lou. 
CArsADELL, author of “Her Waiting Heart,” “Hallow 
E'en,” etc. Pp. 100, 12>ino. 

Saratoga Edition , in Scotch granite- paper covers, 25 cents. 
Boudoir Edition, French grey and blue cloths, . 75 cents. 

The systems, directions and recipes for promoting Personal Beauty, as practiced for 
thousands of years by the renowned beauties of the Orient, and for securing the grace 
and charm for which the French Toilette and Boudoir are distinguished, together with 
suggestions from the best authorities, comprising History and Uses of Beauty; The Best 
Standards; Beautiful Children ; Beanty Food, Sleep, Exercise, Health, Emotions* How 
to be Fat ; How to be Lean ; How to be Beautiful and to remain so, etc., etc. 

Sumners’ Poems: 

By Samuel B. Sumner and Charles A. Sumner. On heavy 
tinted paper, with three engravings, comprising plate por- 
traits of the authors on steel. 12mo, 500 pp., imitation mo- 
rocco. $2.50 

The Buccaneers: 

A stirring Historical Novel. By Randolph Jones, Esq. 
Large 12mo, cloth extra, ink and gold, . . $1.75 

Is drawn from the most daring deeds of the Buccaneers and the sharpest 
events in the early settlement of Maryland and Virginia. It is so full of 
thrilling action, so piquant in sentiment, and so thoroughly alive with the 
animation of the bold and ambitious spirits whose acts it records with ex- 
traordinary power, that the publishers confidently bespeak “ The Bucca- 
neers ” as the most strongly marked and the best of all American novels 
issued during the year. 

Inclose tliree-cent stamp for pamphlet, comprising des- 
criptive catalogue and the plan of organization and working of 
The Authors’ Publishing Company. Address, 

THE AUTHORS’ PUBLISHING CO., 

27 Bond Street New York. 


THE! 


ANTI-BILEI) SHIRT 

CLUB. 


s m 

The fashion 

Wears out more apparel than the man. 

— Much Ado about Nothing. 

S ' @ 



NEW YORK : 

THE AUTHORS’ PUBLISHING COMPANY. 

1878. 

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